An Unpredictable Thanksgiving
by SapphireGirl93
Summary: Pre-movie. A collaborative holiday effort with Hunger4Righteousness that just wouldn't quit! Megamind is feeling a little out of sorts because of an insult Roxanne loves to throw at him in the heat of their constant banter, and decides to prove to her just how wrong she is... with surprising results for both of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there fan friends! Before we get any farther, this fic requires a little bit of back-story.**

**About a month ago, my dear friend Hunger4Righteousness and I decided it would be fun set a challenge for ourselves; not in the spirit of competition but to have fun working on a story together to see what we come up with.**

**We started off with a short prompt… just a quick bit of dialogue, and we were going to pass the story back and forth to see where it ended up. Before we got started we needed to agree on a basic storyline, but we both came up with our own ideas that we just didn't want to let go of. In the end, we decided the best way to go would be for each of us to write our own story based on that one prompt, and to have as much fun with it and entertain each other as much as possible.**

**Our stories were supposed to be uploaded in time for Thanksgiving, but both Hunger and I have busy families and very full plates, and in the process of working on this project, real-life hit us both pretty hard and pulled us away. So yeah; we're late… but hey, it's still the holidays so these fics should fit in nicely!**

**There are a few things you'll find as you read that'll be veeeery similar about our stories. The prompt (of course), a kidnapping, and something we both agreed any good Thanksgiving story just has to have… some sort of food fight.**

**Since I'm so long winded, this story that was intended to be a one-shot has once again turned into a multi-chapter story, so I'll be updating one chapter a week… hope you'll keep your eyes out for it! ;)**

* * *

Megamind sat in the dim, cavernous space of his control room, slouching in his chair and spinning in slow, lazy, deliberate circles as his fingers drummed irritably on the black leather of the arm rest. Behind him, the wall of monitors he used to keep tabs on the city he loved to terrorize were ablaze with warm, cozy scenes of holiday cheer, but the blue villain was too busy brooding to notice.

Normally, Thanksgiving weekend was a welcome respite for Metro City's dreaded blue menace; even villains had to enjoy a little Turkey Day, and this particular villain had developed quite a fondness for this holiday and all its delicious trappings. Well, a fondness _despite_ the fact that because he had adopted the tradition of giving Roxanne the weekend off from forced participation in his schemes, it usually proved to be rather lonely for him as he sat all alone in the lair with no one but Minion and an assortment of his wicked looking, spike encrusted creations to celebrate with.

_This _Thanksgiving however, seemed to be sticking in his craw.

"Predictable!" snorted the increasingly irate alien to himself for the fifth time as he suddenly planted his feet firmly on the concrete floor to stop the movement of his chair. Then sitting up stock straight, he pounded his fist temperamentally on the armrest. "I still can't believe she thinks I'm predictable!"

"Oh now, come on Sir," called a cheerful voice, "You know she didn't mean anything by it. She's just trying to get to you!"

Over the last few weeks, his lovely, yet irritating victim had taken to using that terrible word to describe his incredibly well thought out and shockingly evil schemes. The first time he had heard it fly from her mouth, the prideful profligate was so taken aback, it completely threw him off his game for the remainder of his sparring match with Mr. Perfect.

Apparently, the snarky reporter found his consternation incredibly amusing; since that day she had pulled that awful word from her bag of insults regularly to hurl at him in the heat of their banter. Over the years that they had been at odds, she had used a wide variety of disparaging comments to try and get a reaction out of him, all with varying degrees of success; but_ that _word... for some odd reason he simply could not understand, that particular word infuriated him like no other.

_Predictable... what an insult! _Hearing that word used to describe him would have been humbling coming from anyone, but it especially stung coming from her.

Turning toward his approaching sidekick with a pout, he ranted, "How could she possibly think I'm predictable? I mean, look at the stuff I come up with! Who else would think of the Double-R Destructo-Rocket, or the Pachyderms of Peril? I'll tell you Minion... _no one_, that's who! No one but me!"

"Of _course_ not, Sir," soothed the fish in a nurturing tone. "Don't let it bother you; without a doubt you're still the most creative villain around and Miss Ritchi should be proud to call herself your victim!"

Megamind watched his number-one-fish as he scurried around the control room, rounding up the better behaved brainbots and giving instructions about how to help with the preparation and set up of the boss' favorite holiday. "Of course _we_ know she should be proud to be my victim... she should_ thank _me for heaven's sake! She gets a front row seat to every one of my plans and gets to watch that ridiculous boyfriend of hers making a fool out of himself up close and personal. And then she gets all the credit for reporting about it when it's all over with!"

Megamind slouched back into his chair with a huff as he shook his head and rested his chin on his fist, glaring off into the distance as his incredible mind rolled that dreaded word around again with distaste. Finally glancing at his best friend as he passed along in front of him on his way back to the kitchen to continue on with his preparations, he asked in a feeble tone, "Minion, you don't think I've become predictable... do you?"

"Not a chance! Like I said Sir, there isn't a more industrious or creative villain anywhere. Just look at the way the citizens start to panic the second you show up with one of your evil inventions... you don't even have to _do_ anything and they fall all over themselves to get out of your way! Hehe! Yep, if that doesn't tell you you're doing something right, then I don't know what does... "

The second the spacefish completed his sentence, he stopped in his tracks and turned to face his boss, a look of mild confusion in his big brown eyes, and raising his robotic index finger to tap his bowl thoughtfully, he went on, " ...Or would it be doing something wrong? Hmmm... Well... anyhoo, whatever it is you're doing, keep it up because you have this city eating out of your hand! And speaking of eating, do you smell that?"

Megamind looked at his henchman blankly in response the question posed to him, but within moments he belatedly began to notice the scrumptious aroma wafting throughout the lair. With disappointment he realized he had been so distracted by his thoughts of Roxanne's rudeness, he had completely missed out on one of his favorite parts of the holiday; savoring the delicious smells of the upcoming feast and enjoying the anticipation of that first fabulous bite.

"Oh, yes... it smells good Minion." the dejected villain said halfheartedly with a subdued wave of his hand. "You must really be outdoing yourself this year."

"Good? What do you mean good? It smells _fantastic_! I'll tell you, my olfactory sensors are really in overdrive right now; this is gonna be _great_!"

As Minion stood there excitedly waiting for him to respond, he watched as his boss continued to sit temperamentally in his chair, the pout on his face developing startlingly beneath his dark, heavy brows. It was obvious he was still brooding over the most recent and highly successful weapon in Miss Ritchi's arsenal of banter.

The fish's cheerful expression melted into a frown of concern as he realized the depth of his friend's reaction to the acerbic reporter's teasing. He hadn't known that Megamind had taken it so hard, and was at a loss to understand why it bothered him so much. After all, cheap shots and a bit of name calling was all part of her role in the game, right? She was their victim; wasn't that what she was _supposed_ to do?

The doting fish hated to see his friend in a funk like this, especially on a day like that one. Poor Sir had never had a real holiday growing up, and as soon as they had broken out on their own and found a permanent place to settle in, it had become one of Minion's goals to do his best to at least make _this_ holiday special for him.

_Well_, the faithful henchfish thought to himself,_ I'm just gonna have to do whatever I can to lift his spirits_!

"Come on Sir, cheer up! It's Thanksgiving! Your favorite holiday?" he piped up with a grin. "You know, I'm so glad you decided to give Miss Ritchi this weekend off every year as one of the perks in her 'Kidnapping Package' when you chose her to be your victim. You both deserve a little time off, and this year it seems to be especially called for... you know, with all this tension between the two of you. A break is definitely in order, and I'm sure with a little rest and a lot of turkey, you'll be feeling as bad as new in no time!"

Megamind barely glanced up from his brooding stare at the bank of controls, and answered with a sigh, "Yes, I suppose you're right. A couple of days off to regroup might give me a new perspective on the whole thing."

_Kidnapping Package, Thanksgiving weekend off every year... ugh, she's right! If that isn't predictable then... Wait a minute..._

As Minion watched his boss, a strange and very sudden change began to overtake him. The dejected pout that had concerned the fish so much suddenly vanished and was instantly replaced with a wide and rather unsettling grin.

"Minion, how long did you say before dinner would be ready?" asked the blue troublemaker in a suspiciously scheming tone.

Now it was Minion's turn to change expressions in an instant. The cheerful grin that had comfortably settled itself across his fang-filled mouth disappeared in favor of a quizzical scowl, and casting his boss a sidelong glance, he answered, "About four hours until the turkey's ready, a little longer before we actually sit down to eat... why? What are you doing?"

Ignoring his friend's wary question, Megamind went on with increasing excitement, "So, are you at a point that you might be able to step away from the kitchen for a while?"

"Well, not right now, but I think in a couple of hours or so I might be able to step away for a little bit."

_Oooh, can't take him away from making the turkey, that's too important... _"Ah, well I guess I'll have to make due on my own until you're available."

"Make due? Sir, can I ask what this is all about?" asked the fish in an apprehensive tone.

"Oh, it's nothing really." the blue schemer responded quickly in a tone that shut down his friend's line of questioning in an instant. He thought it best to keep his developing plans to himself for the time being, so as not to distract his personal aquatic caterer from the necessary task of preparing the all-important feast. "It's just a little something I thought of that I might need some help with later on. You'll see."

Minion watched his boss as he sat in his chair, his expression developing into the unmistakable countenance of a villain in the throes of formulating a plan. _Oh no, I hope he's not doing what I think he's doing... _"Sir, just don't forget what day this is... I've got all that food and it would be a shame to... "

"Yes, yes! All right Minion, I know, it's Thanksgiving... as if I didn't already know that! Now hurry up, back to work! That food's not going to cook itself you know!"

Minion's mouth snapped shut in an instant, and with a final suspicious glance at his preoccupied master, he turned with a sigh to continue on with the preparations for the holiday feast he was suddenly beginning to wonder whether or not they would actually get to eat at all.

"Predictable, Miss Ritchi?" said Megamind quietly to himself in his most devious tone of voice when he was left alone, his narrowed eyes locked on her empty chair as it sat in the center of the room. Raising his hands to rub them together with maniacal anticipation, he went on as he began to chuckle evilly. "Oh really? Well, my rude little reporter, you're about to find out just how _UN-_predictable this mad genius really is!"

* * *

Roxanne stood uncomfortably in her living room, listening to the voice on the other end of the line. She'd been dreading making this phone call since she'd come to the decision earlier that morning that, despite feeling a bit guilty about it, this was without a doubt what she wanted to do.

"Yeah… about that. Um, look, Wayne. I think I'll pass on Thanksgiving this year." She cringed as she clutched the phone, half expecting him to give her a hard time and refuse to take no for an answer.

There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line, and then Wayne asked in a knowing tone, "My mom's really starting to get to you, isn't she?"

_Oh wow. Is it that obvious? _Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed the refrigerator door handle. "Well…"

"I know," the voice conceded flatly, "I know how she is, and honestly, I can't blame you."

"Hey, don't get me wrong!" Roxanne piped up as she leaned down to peer at the sparse pickings. "She's… she's a sweetheart, she really is! But the Brides magazines she always leaves on the coffee table?" She rolled her eyes. "That's getting to be a little much. And does she always have to ask me when I'm going to grow my hair out longer?"

"Hey, look. It's fine, Roxie."

_Great, nothing to eat in there, and I'm starving. I knew I should have gone to the store, and now it'll be a madhouse! _She straightened up again, immensely relieved that her apparent boyfriend understood. Even his parents believed they were an item.

"But, what should I tell them? You know she's going to be worried sick about where you're having Thanksgiving this year."

"Well, just tell her I'm going home for Thanksgiving."

"Are you?" asked the curious hero, a touch of disbelief in his voice.

"Phfft... _No_! You think _your_ mom's bad? My mother would eat yours in two bites. Ugh, always talking about my biological clock and stuff! I mean, come on! Who wants to hear that?"

She opened the freezer door to peer inside, hopeful that she might uncover some hidden treasure. _Oh, come on! This is pathetic... _"No, I'll just stay home... here home. You know Megamind always takes the weekend off for Thanksgiving. It's about time I had a good, lazy, stay at home, shuffle around in my slippers kind of day."

"What, no turkey?" Wayne inquired, apparently astonished that anyone would even _consider_ spending Thanksgiving Day turkey-free.

She reached into the freezer and extracted a long forgotten frozen pot pie. _Ah, score! _

"Oh, yeah... " Roxanne reassured him cheerfully as she flipped the box over to find the expiration date. "Yeah, don't worry about me! I'll make myself a little feast right here and celebrate."

"You're sure?"

"Yep! Veeery sure." guaranteed the relieved brunette as she preheated the oven and went to her pantry to see what she could rustle up for a suitable holiday side dish._ Hmmm, let's see... canned cranberries; eh, maybe... Ugh, dehydrated mashed potatoes? Why do I even have these? Geez, I wish I had some pumpkin pie..._

"Ok, then. Well you have a good one, and I'll see ya next week." responded her muscle-bound friend, interrupting her meal planning process.

Roxanne snorted a quick laugh. She could practically set her watch to the fact that Megamind would be there bright and early Monday morning, ready to waylay her so he could make up for all the time they lost over the long, abduction-free weekend. "Yeah, I'm sure you will. Happy Thanksgiving, Wayne!"

"Happy Thanksgiving, Roxie."

Closing her phone and tossing it on the counter, she turned to refocus her attention on scraping up what she could find to incorporate into her meager feast. _What can I do instead of pumpkin pie...? _"Oh, brownies!" she said aloud, reaching to the back of her cabinet to pull out a box of the fudgy mix. "I guess this'll have to do... "

As she leaned against the pantry door frame and read the package directions, mentally taking stock of the necessary ingredients to make sure she had what was called for, a sudden rustling sound from somewhere behind her caught her attention. Being a seasoned abductee, she instinctively froze, her spine stiffening and her blue eyes snapping up to look straight ahead of her as her ears strained to catch another hint of the suspicious noise.

Standing as still and as quietly as possible, she waited for any sign of impending attack, ready to wing the box of brownie mix she clutched in her hand at the big blue head she was suddenly certain had to be lurking somewhere behind her, and thankful she was standing so close to the stock of heavy canned goods that she could use for ammunition in a pinch. But after several seconds of silence passed by without a blast in the face of the musty smelling spray or that smelly bag they loved to pop over her head at the moment of capture, Roxanne began to wonder if she had imagined the sound that she had been so certain she'd heard a moment ago.

After all, it _was_ Thanksgiving. In all the years he'd been pestering her, he had _never_ shown up to kidnap her over that particular holiday weekend. Then, like a light flickering out of the darkness, a vague memory came to mind of him mentioning something ages ago about a "Kidnapping Package", and the idea of her getting that "weekend off". It was almost as though he thought of her victim status as a job, complete with benefits and perks.

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head at the ridiculous idea, she sighed as she thought to herself, _Ugh, relax Roxanne; you know he's not going to show up today! I think I might need a glass of wine to take the edge off and help get me into the holiday spirit..._

Taking a deep breath and forcing herself to simmer down, she allowed her brownie-equipped arm to drop slowly as she cautiously turned to examine her kitchen. She had to be absolutely certain there was no sign of the annoying blue intruder or his aquatic henchman before she could continue on with her makeshift celebration.

At first glance, all seemed clear... sweeping her eyes slowly from right to left, she saw no sign of the irritating alien. Kitchen... clear. Dining room... empty. Living room... no one in sight.

The sound she had heard seemed to have been directly behind her; there was no way he could have dashed up the stairs that quickly to avoid being seen without making a massive racket. In fact, it would have been incredibly difficult for him to run _anywhere_ to hide that quickly in her wide open apartment without making some sort of commotion. The only thing that made sense was that the noise she'd thought she heard had come from the apartment above hers... those neighbors tended to be noisy anyway.

When she had thoroughly convinced herself that she was in fact alone in her apartment and safe from the prospect of being snatched up as bait on her day off, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. Grabbing the bottle of cooking oil from the pantry shelf and kicking the door shut as she walked away, she looked back at the box of brownie mix to finish perusing the instructions, ready to begin preparing her private celebration.

Just as she reached the counter and set down her baking supplies, she heard another quiet rustling sound coming from behind her, this time accompanied by what sounded like the soft creak of leather. Her blue eyes once again popped wide open and her heart skipped a beat. _Oh no..._

Spinning as quickly as she could, she just barely had time to see a flash of blue and hear a wickedly familiar voice say, "Happy Thanksgiving, my cheeky little journalist... " before the lights went out.

* * *

**Thanks so much for reading! Please keep your eyes out for the next update coming sometime next week. :)**

**Reviews mean a lot to me, so I hope you'll leave me some sort of quick comment to tell me you LOVED my story, or liked it, or thought it was ok, or even if you hated it. Well, maybe not if you hated it; that might hurt my feelings and make me cry, and I definitely don't need to cry right now.**

**Hope to see you all back next week and that you all have a lovely start to your Holiday season! :) **


	2. Chapter 2

**On we go with our story! Thanks for coming back everyone!**

* * *

Roxanne awoke slowly with a mild headache and feeling quite confused about where she was. The unknown place seemed dark and stuffy, and smelled terrible... an oddly familiar smell, like stale corn chips and dirty gym socks.

She turned her head to look around but realized in an instant that something bulky was draped over her; no wonder it seemed so dark and stuffy in there. Making an attempt at reaching up to pull away whatever was covering her head, she became aware of the fact that her hands were tied behind her, locking her in place. _Oh my god, where the hell am I? _

Refusing to allow her still muddled brain to panic, she forced herself take a deep breath and focus, to retrace her steps. _Okay, the last thing I remember is I was at home. Phone, dinner, flash of blue... oh no..._

"Megamind! What do you think you're doing? This is supposed to be my day off, dang it!"

Her irate greeting was met with silence, which further infuriated the already raging reporter.

"_Megamind! _You'd better answer me! And get this nasty bag off my head before I puke! Where do you keep this thing, anyway? In the bottom of some old gym locker underneath all the sweaty jock straps?"

From out of her shroud of darkness came the sound of laughter, and then her captor spoke. "No, no, no... No puking in the control room. Nothing says spoiling my Thanksgiving dinner like Roxanne Ritchi vomiting all over my floor."

With that, the disgusting bag was whisked away to reveal her abductor, standing directly before her and leaning forward, his smug blue face gazing down at her with a superior smirk.

"Ah, okay... so _you_ can ruin my Thanksgiving but I can't ruin yours, is that it?" she snapped angrily.

"Well of course! You're the captive; I'm the villain. That_ is _the natural order of things... you've been at this game long enough to know how this is supposed to work, my dear."

"I'm _not_ your dear first off, so stop calling me that. And second, what do you think you're doing; sweeping me away on my day off... _MY DAY OFF, _Megamind! This is the _one_ weekend a year I can look forward to some peace and quiet, and now I don't even get that!"

"Oh my, such a sad story... but I'm afraid your whining hasn't moved my black heart in the slightest."

"My... my_ whining? _Oh-ho, you'd better thank your lucky stars you have me tied to this chair Megamind!"

"Ah, temper, temper… now is that any way for the Golden Girl of Metrocity to behave? Now, enough with the complaining!" he responded in a superior tone, and then as a maniacal grin settled across his face he continued on with a wicked purr, "I think it's about time we get on with things. Are you ready to face the certain destruction I have planned for you today, Miss Ritchi?"

"_No,_ I'm not ready! I distinctly remember you mentioning something weird about a 'Kidnapping Package' when you roped me into this whole abduction, good versus evil, rule the world farce, and you _specifically_ told me I could expect Thanksgiving weekend off... well, I want my weekend off, right now!"

"Well that's just too bad." snapped the villain indignantly. "I'm in charge here; we're playing by _my_ rules, not yours... all you get to do is play along like a good little victim whether you like the rules or not. And just so you know, my rules state that I reserve the right to revoke Kidnapping Package privileges whenever I see fit."

"Oh really. Hmmm, and when did you come up with that little gem of an excuse to drag me out here and harass me when I should be home getting a much needed break from you and your genius plans?"

"When you decided I was the most predictable man on Earth, that's when!"

Roxanne looked at him blankly for a moment._ Did he really just say that? No, he didn't... did he?_

_"What?" _she hissed, still having a difficult time accepting that even Megamind would come up with something so ridiculously petty. "You're kidding, right? You just came up with this brilliant plan on the fly because I called you _predictable_?"

"That's right, and you're just about to find out how _un_-predictable I am!" blustered the blue devil in a self-righteous tone.

He watched her for a moment as she stared at him in silence, a look of utter disbelief on her face. Mistaking her lack of response for admiration, awe, or even fear, he puffed himself up pridefully and continued on in an arrogant tone, "Oh, just you_ wait _until you see what I have planned for you, Miss Ritchi. Never have you suffered through a more fearsome trial in the name of e-vil than the one you're about to experience. Imagine, dangling... "

"No wait, don't tell me. Let me guess," she interrupted. "It's Thanksgiving, so I'm gonna say this has something to do with turkey... Oh! You're probably calling it Turkey of Terror! Oh yeah, that'd be perfect. I'll bet you're going to hang me from some kind of rope or chain... of course it can't just be _any_ chain, it has to be about to break, right? Gotta make it more exciting; get that element of racing against the clock in there. So, I'm hanging above some big caldron of boiling tar or some other sticky stuff, and somewhere along the line there are feathers involved... does that sound about right so far?"

When Roxanne paused in her prediction, it suddenly became Megamind's turn to stare speechlessly, his emerald eyes wide and his mouth agape with shock.

"Well? Did I hit the mark? Come on, how close did I come to getting it right so far?" she teased.

The instant she started describing her guess to him, she could tell that she was hitting pretty close to home. That infuriatingly smug grin he used when he thought he had one up on her drained away, and his mouth began to open and close wordlessly, reminding her of a fish out of water. It had taken an extreme amount of self-control to maintain a steady voice throughout her narrative and keep herself from laughing.

Megamind couldn't believe she'd come so close to guessing... well, in all honesty, she _did_ guess up to that point. She had paused before she could continue on, but he suddenly had no doubt that if she did finish her prediction, she'd certainly figure out the giant roasting pan on the conveyor belt that lead to the flaming oven of doom that he and his more industrious brainbots had quickly whipped up as a terrifying finale before he left to snatch her... it was amazing what some spare parts and a little creativity could do in a few hours.

Drawing himself up to his full height and glowering at her dangerously, the short and temperamental alien pointed at her accusingly and snapped, "Well, whether you guessed it or not doesn't really matter... the _point _is I surprised you by showing up on Thanksgiving! Ah-ha! See? As _un_-predictable as the day is long!"

"Ha, ha,_ ha! _That's gotta be the funniest thing I've heard all week, Blueberry."

_Oh, I HATE it when she calls me that! _Megamind took a step closer to his captive and bent down to look her square in the eye."Go on, admit it! You were _shocked_ to see me show up and spray you in the face with the knock-out spray!"

Roxanne glared as she set her jaw stubbornly and leaned forward in her chair, further closing the distance between them, and shot back,_ "No way!"_

Just when their quarrel was becoming heated and the two of them were set to engage in a throw-down argument that would live on in infamy, they were pulled from their exchange by the sound of a door creaking open at the other end of the room, accompanied by the clunking of heavy, robotic footsteps. Within seconds, the control room was filled with a deliciously savory smell that had been lingering discretely in the air when the irate reporter arrived, but she had been too distracted to notice.

The tempting aroma suddenly reminded Roxanne just how hungry she was, and she could feel her empty stomach begin to growl and rumble.

As she looked toward the source of the sounds and smells that had drawn her attention away from her opponent, she saw Minion appearing from around a large bank of controls, sporting a festive, fall colored apron and smiling cheerfully. The surprised captive had never had the opportunity to see Minion's more domestic side, and had to choke back a laugh in an attempt to prevent herself from embarrassing the friendly fish... he was beyond adorable.

"Okay Sir, here I am. Sorry it took me so long; getting the brainbots to cooperate instead of scrapping with each other or trying to play fetch with the silver wear I took out to set the table with was almost impossible! I wonder what's gotten into them today? Anyway, I think I'm finally ready to help you out with whatever you needed me for, but I don't have much time. I just put the potatoes on the stove to boil and... "

Minion froze in mid-step when he looked up and saw their unhappy guest sitting bound to her usual chair and looking incredibly angry. It was obvious that she had been in the middle of a heated debate with his boss when he walked in. They were both leaning toward one another in what appeared to be the throes of a terrible argument, their faces no more than a foot away and both bearing an expression that bordered on extreme rage; especially Roxanne._ Oh wow, it's a good thing she's tied to that chair... I wouldn't want to be in Sir's boots right now._

When the surprised fish recovered a little from the completely unexpected sight of their captive of choice sitting in their control room when she should have been at home enjoying some much deserved time off, he asked in a bewildered tone, "Wha... Miss Ritchi... what are you doing here?"

"Well it's _not_ like I just decided to drop on by for old time's sake! Ask _HIM_, he's the one who brought me here!"

Minion looked at his master, who had straightened himself and was standing with his arms crossed, looking defensively at the fish with temperamental pout.

"Sir! Oh no, I was afraid of this… what in the world are you doing? It's her day off! And I don't have_ time _to help with a plan today... I have all that food cooking, and it'll be ready in about an hour."

"Listen,_ I'm _the villain here!_ I _get to decide when she gets her days off, and today is _not_ that day. And don't talk to me about Kidnapping Packages and promises... Who was it that came up with that ridiculous idea anyway?"

"_You_ did Sir, and I would think that you would want to follow your own rules."

"Well FYI my finned friend, rules are _made_ to be broken, especially that one... and when it comes to breaking the rules I'm the best there is!"

"If you go ahead with this plan you've cooked up without me... wait, what is the plan, anyway?"

"Oh, it's a goody, Minion! He's calling this one _Turkey of Terror_... pretty original, huh? Who'd ever guess he'd come up with a plan involving turkey on Thanksgiving Day? Oh wait, that's right..._ I did!"_

"I never said that's what I was calling it!" Megamind huffed, not even bothering to deny that she was right about the content of the plan; she was about to find that out anyway. "You know, you're far too acerbic for your own good, Missy! You ought to... "

"Hey, can I just get a word in edgewise here? I was_ trying _to say that if you go ahead with your plan right now, all that food I've been working on _all day _will be ruined! And honestly, Sir," Minion turned away and continued on in a softer voice out of the corner of his mouth, trying to ensure their reluctant guest wouldn't hear, "I do feel a little sorry for Miss Ritchi. Everyone needs a day off every now and then, and she works really hard at being a good captive!"

As Minion spoke, Megamind stole a glance at the lovely woman as she sat tied to her chair and felt a sudden pang of guilt. _Well, he does have a point, she really is amazing. And so cute... Maybe I shouldn't have... No! Wait, what am I thinking?" _

Instantly rebelling against the oddly compassionate tendencies that crept up on him out of the blue and had sneakily stolen their way into his thoughts, he stuffed them back down and responded with a hissing whisper, "Works really hard? _Good_ captive? Minion, she won't even scream for me... how exactly is that good, you tell me?"

"Well no one's perfect! Besides, you must think she's pretty darn good; I don't see you running out there to capture anyone else!"

Knowing his henchman was right, Megamind had to think fast to turn the conversation in his favor. "You _know_ why we capture her... she's the key to our future victory! And as far as her day off, well it's too late for that. She's already here, and it's not like I can just turn around and say, 'Oh, sorry Roxanne. You can go home now and let's just forget this ever happened'. No, we're on a one way train now... this _has_ to happen today. Besides, don't you remember what she called me?"

From the discomfort of her chair, Roxanne watched as the villainous duo continued on with their whispered conversation, casting quick and sneaky glances back at her intermittently. Despite her irritation, her curiosity was getting the better of her and she soon found herself leaning forward in her chair, straining her ears to catch a hint of what they were saying.

The apparent course of their conversation somewhat surprised her. It almost looked as though the two mischief makers were arguing. She had seen Megamind snap at his friend before, but she'd never seen Minion fight back. And Megamind... when he glanced back at her just a moment ago, he almost looked as though he felt... remorseful? Guilty?

Now this was an unprecedented glimpse at a side to these two that she had never seen before. Despite her irritation at being captured, her natural need to know _everything_ was beginning to burn hot and bright now, consuming her thoughts and compelling her to try even harder to lean forward against her restraints to catch a snippet of their conversation. In fact, her nosy mind was so consumed with curiosity, the only thing that seemed to be dampening her growing need to know was the nagging empty gurgle in her stomach that was mercilessly egged on by the heavenly smell that continued to drift enticingly throughout the control room.

Minion looked blankly at his master and asked, "What she called you? Why, what _did_ she call you?"

The confused fish paused momentarily as he tried to think back to their more recent adventures. Judging by the tone of Sir's voice and the stricken look on his face, it must have been something really bad! Maybe he'd missed something when he had stepped out on an errand for his boss in the middle of one of their schemes.

As his sharp mind cycled back through the past couple of weeks, he stumbled on the memory of Roxanne teasing his boss about being predictable. He'd thrown quite the little hissy fit when he'd heard that one, _still_ was complaining about it actually. That's right, he'd just been talking about it again that morning as a matter of fact... but, that couldn't be it. All that fuss over such a little thing?

Oh… yep, there it was. That same pout he'd worn earlier when he'd asked Minion if _he_ thought he'd had become predictable, too.

Minion took a step back, and with a look of disappointed astonishment, he said, "Sir! Is that what this is all about?"

Megamind glanced at Roxanne, who was watching the exchange intently, and then looked back at his henchfish with same sheepish expression as a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But… why should he feel guilty? This was all Roxanne's fault! If she hadn't run that sassy mouth of hers and insulted him in such a belittling way, he never would have found it necessary to take such drastic measures. Determined to defend his decision to teach his victim a thing or two, he drew himself up to collect his damaged dignity, and opened his mouth… only to be interrupted by an odd noise before he could even get a word out.

"What on Earth was _that_?" He asked as he looked around the room with a puzzled look on his blue face, trying to find the source of the strange, low, rumbling gurgle that suddenly echoed through the cavernous space.

_Oh my god, how embarrassing!_ Thought Roxanne as her empty stomach decided it had waited long enough for the fabulous feast she'd been smelling, and figured that the quiet moment during the momentary lull in her captor's conversation would be a good time to begin its noisy protest.

She could feel her face begin to color in embarrassment as a flush of heat began to bloom in her cheeks, and her blue eyes snapped up to meet those of her abductor's, who was now looking at her with an expression of amused surprise. With her hands tied behind her back, she couldn't even wrap her arms around her stomach in an attempt to muffle the sound; all she could do was cringe in humiliation as her complaining stomach continued to growl noisily.

Megamind looked at her for another moment in silence, his eyes twinkling and the corner of his mouth twitching with hilarity, and then he suddenly broke down into a gasping mess of riotous laughter. The timing for that embarrassing moment couldn't have been more perfect, and he found himself completely incapable of holding back a good, hard laugh at her expense.

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**No worries, the story doesn't end here. Check back next week to find out what happens! :)**

**Reviews are always appreciated, and in fact make all the work and dedication that goes into writing these stories seem worth while, so_ PLEASE_ leave me a kind word. It can get lonely and discouraging without a little pat on the back, and your kindness will make my week, I promise! Thank you, X6!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Moving right along with the story, friends. Thanks so much for coming back again!**

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"Oh, shut up!" hissed the mortified journalist as she glared at him venomously.

Minion on the other hand, was instantly concerned for her comfort and welfare. Being a doting, nurturing sort of fish, it was beyond reason for him to think of anyone, including their victim, going hungry.

"Miss Ritchi, how long has it been since you've eaten?" he asked, his voice heavy with worry.

"I don't know… I had some coffee this morning." Roxanne had never been a girl to eat much for breakfast. A cup of coffee or two with a piece of toast or fruit was all she usually needed to start her day, and that particular morning she had opted to skip eating entirely, still thinking at the time that she would be joining Wayne and his family for their holiday feast and wanting to save her appetite. Even the night before, her meal had been rather scanty. Being the busy career woman that she was, it was common for her to grab a quick snack on the run and call it dinner.

"You mean you haven't eaten since _last night_?" gasped the horrified piscean.

"Yeah, I guess so… "

"Sir!" he demanded as he turned to the man in charge, "There's no way we can start a new plan now, she's starving! Why don't we just let her go this time?"

Megamind stopped in mid-cackle, and looking at his sidekick in shock, he asked, "Are you _kidding?_ Whose side are you on, anyway? We can't just let her _go_!"

"Why not?" Minion asked in a protective tone as his scaly forehead wrinkled defensively.

"Yeah, why not?" echoed the reporter, assuming a wide, hopeful, appealing smile and nodding her head encouragingly at the blue scoundrel. "Sounds like a great idea to me!"

"Oh, I'm sure it sounds just _fabulous_ to you," he said with exaggerated patience as he turned to her and bent forward so he was looking into her eyes once again, "But you seem to be forgetting that I'm the _bad guy_ and it's not my job to care about that! Now, we have a plan to proceed with… let's just get _on_ with things, shall we?"

"Well then if we can't let her go, the least we could do is put it off for a little while so she has a chance to eat… Oh, I have a great idea! Miss Ritchi, would you like to eat with us? We have more than enough; I _always_ make plenty of extras so Sir can have those midnight turkey sandwiches that he loves so much… "

"_Minion!_ Haven't you ever heard of the term T.M.I?_ Shut- up!" _Megamind hissed when he noticed Roxanne snickering at Minion's rambling.

"Oh come on, Sir. She doesn't mind, do you Miss Ritchi?"

"No! No, I don't mind at all! Oh no… the image of Megamind, the _dreaded_ criminal genius of Metro City and hopeful future Evil Overlord, sitting up late at night in his jammies and eating turkey sandwiches is just _adorable!" _she teased with a smirk, producing a searing glare from the offended villain.

"See? I told you she wouldn't care. So, how about it, Sir? Is that okay with you? She can eat with us, and then we can just move right along to the plan as soon as we're done." Minion said, obviously immensely pleased with himself at his stroke of genius… after all, his idea would make everybody happy, right? Sir would still get to execute his cunning plan, and of course Roxanne would be just _thrilled _to participate in his boss' strategy for her destruction once she had some good, holiday home cooking in her stomach.

Roxanne looked at Megamind expectantly, waiting for him to nix the idea of her joining them for their holiday dinner in a hot minute, and very loudly at that. But as she sat there waiting for the inevitable verdict, she was rather surprised at his reaction.

Instead of issuing a quick, decisive no, Megamind asked "What about Goodie Two Shoes? Won't he be expecting you? In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't already shown up looking for you…"

_Oh, how do I explain this…_ Instead of offering an explanation, she simply stated, "No, I'm, uh… I'm not going over there this year."

The Master of All Villainy stood silently watching her for a moment, plainly confused by her answer. Roxanne Ritchi spending her Thanksgiving alone, without her brainless boyfriend? She always spent her holidays with that big oaf! Why in the world would she choose to go it alone this year? And she didn't even seem to be bothered by that idea; not in the least.

As the seconds ticked by, the woman and the fish watched him curiously as he puzzled over her admission and wrestled with the decision set before him. After a moment, he shot a sneaky glance in her direction, his expression softening imperceptively, but an instant later he huffed, and turning to Minion with a dramatic roll of his eyes he said, "Ugh, this is ridiculous; first you want me to let her go, now you want me to _feed_ her? And of course after dinner she might be sleepy, so I suppose you want me tuck her in for a nice little nap before we move on with the plan!"

Raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut tight, he stood for a moment and shook his head with exaggerated frustration. Finally, he sighed deeply as though he were an anguished soul who was being greatly put-upon, and throwing his hands out in front of him resignedly, he responded in a long-suffering tone, "Fine. Whatever! If that's what it takes to get this show on the road, I guess it's fine with me."

"Oh, yay!" Minion cheered adorably, drawing a quiet snicker from Roxanne as she sat bound to her chair.

"Now hold on," Megamind interrupted sagely, "Don't get too excited. Forcing her to be bait for us is one thing, but commanding her to spend Thanksgiving dinner with us is quite different. It's entirely up to her whether she wants to join us or not."

"Well Miss Ritchi? What do you say?"

The dastardly duo turned and looked at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. It was obvious that Minion was beside himself with excitement at the prospect of adding her to their very short guest list; his big brown eyes shone as he gazed at her eagerly and his fishy face was split with a wide, toothy grin. His reaction to the situation didn't really surprise her; the little creature had always been incredibly friendly and polite, and despite the fact that they were at odds with each other, she couldn't help but like him.

Megamind on the other hand nearly had her floored. She simply couldn't believe that he was willing to go along with Minion's generous idea, and even more than that, she was shocked that rather than forcing her to join him, he left the choice to her. He stood back watching her as she sat silently, waiting for her answer to his friend's surprise invitation. Despite the fact that he seemed to be putting on quite a show of his irritation with this unusual situation, there was a look of quiet expectation; no, not just expectation… it almost looked as though there was a glimmer of hope hidden in those green eyes.

Perhaps the most shocking part of this mid-afternoon whirlwind adventure was that she found herself actually considering their offer. Common sense told her it was crazy to toy with the idea of willingly spending time with the infamous villain and his henchmen. Who in their right mind would even think of doing such a thing? But when she weighed that against the other prospects she had lined up; a lonely meal of frozen pot pie and instant potatoes at home or an overly extravagant dinner with Wayne's reasonably pleasant but pushy family, suddenly an evening spent with her long-time kidnapper didn't seem so bad, even if it _did_ end up with her hanging from that chain over the pot of boiling tar.

Looking at Minion thoughtfully, she asked, "You don't have instant potatoes, do you?"

"Oh no, I never use that fake stuff." insisted the fish.

"Will there be pumpkin pie?"

"Of course! We have it all! Cranberries and stuffing and… "

"Stuffing?" she piped up, her voice betraying a bit more eagerness than she intended as she felt another rumble in her empty stomach. Then realizing she needed to take it down a notch for the sake of maintaining the idea that as their captive, she was still feeling at least a little put upon, she sighed and said, "All right then, I guess I'll stay."

Minion instantly clapped his metal hands together happily and exclaimed, "Oh, this is gonna be great! Well, I'd better get to the kitchen and finish those potatoes. And I'm gonna need to have another place set at the table; I'll get the bots to do that while I finish cooking… Gee, I hope we have enough dishes… "

As Minion prattled on about his list of last minute preparations for the feast, Megamind stood quietly in the background; his expression cycling from one of surprise to a brief flash of excitement, and then finishing off with a touch of apprehension. He could scarcely believe this lucky turn of events; Roxanne Ritchi was going to stay to have dinner with _him!_

But then there was the other side of the coin… this was going to present a unique set problems. Not only would the biggest busy-body in the city have access to the private areas of the lair that no one had ever seen but himself and his sidekick, but she was also about to see the embarrassingly over-board way that Minion insisted on setting up the celebration in the name of making it "special". _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all…_

"Since you'll be eating with us we might as well get you untied before I head in to finish up the cooking; can't very well expect you to eat with your hands tied behind your back, now can we?" Minion mentioned before he made his way back to the kitchen.

"Wait! We can't just have her wandering around in here wherever she wants, poking her nose where it doesn't belong. We need to establish some ground rules before we let her up… and just so you know, Miss Ritchi, if I detect even an ounce of snooping or an iota of digging, it's right back to the chair for you and on with the show, whether we've eaten or not!"

Roxanne was mildly insulted by his accusation. Of course, the idea _had_ briefly flashed through her mind in the process of making her decision whether or not to stay, but he didn't need to know that. "What? Why would you even say that? Just how underhanded do you think I am?"

"Well you _are_ a reporter; doesn't that say it all in an egg shell?"

"_Ugh_, you don't know what you're talking about! God, you can't even _talk_ right! Egg shell? It's _nutshell,_ genius! You know what? Maybe this whole idea was a mistake… "

"Yeah? Well, maybe it was!"

"Whoa! Hold on now, you two. No need to get upset. I have an idea. As long as Miss Ritchi gives us her word she'll stay in the dining room, we shouldn't have anything to worry about. You can do that, right?" Minion asked, turning to their dinner guest.

Roxanne was silent for a moment as she mulled over his question; she wanted nothing more than to stubbornly refuse to work with the conditions being posed to her by her captor, but she hated to disappoint Minion. In the end, she sighed reluctantly and responded, "Yeah, I guess so… I can do that."

"Well there you go, Sir! Problem solved! Now, I'll go get the Knock-Out Spray, and then I can carry her into the… "

"Wait, there's no need for that Minion. As long as she's agreeing to stay where she's told and not to snoop around, her status as victim is temporarily being put on hold; we're moving her to _guest_-status as of right now, and we do _not _use the knock out spray on our guests." Megamind said quickly, producing another wave of shocked surprise in the already somewhat astonished reporter.

"Oh, we don't?"

"No! Certainly not!"

"Ah. Well I didn't know; it's not like we ever _have_ guests. Anyway, I just assumed you'd want to make sure she couldn't see anything on the way to the dining room. You know, to protect all your secrets."

"Yes, you're right. We can't have that. Promise or no promise, it would be far too much of a temptation for those pretty, prying eyes to be exposed to the wonder and grandeur of E-vil Lair."

"I know! I'll go grab the bag. "Minion interjected helpfully as he turned to find the smelly item.

"No! Come on!" Roxanne demanded. "You want me to eat with you, but then you're going to put that nasty bag on my head right before dinner? Sorry, but if you do that I don't think I'm going to have much of an appetite."

"Hold on now... " Megamind said as he crossed his arms and raised a hand to stroke his goatee thoughtfully. Roxanne could see his wheels turning as he looked at her, his eyes squinted in concentration. A moment later, an expression of triumph settled across his features as he came to a decision.

He stepped forward to approach her and began to fiddle with the latch on his cape. "Nix the bag, Minion. We can use this instead."

Slipping the smooth sheath of fabric from his shoulders, he held it out for her consideration, and looking at her questioningly, he asked, "Will that work?"

"Really? You're actually asking me my opinion?" she ventured dubiously.

"Well if you don't want it I'd be _happy_ to just go get the bag… "

"No! No, this is fine. It's… really, kind of nice actually. Thanks." she said as she looked up at him with a surprised but sincere smile, genuinely grateful and feeling inexplicably touched by his offer.

Megamind couldn't help the answering smile that played at the corner of his lips when he saw the little spark that lit her blue eyes, and heard the gratitude in her voice. He didn't think he'd heard anyone other than Minion thank him for anything in his whole life. He had to admit to himself that it felt pretty good, especially coming from her.

It didn't take long for him to come to his senses, however. If he wasn't careful, these uncharacteristic allowances he found himself making for her might just give Little Miss Know-it-All the impression that he had something of a soft spot, and he couldn't have _that! _Immediately wiping the smile off his face and assuming a more surly expression, he cleared his throat and mumbled, "Yes, well don't read too much into it; all I'm doing is protecting my secrets from your _incessantly_ annoying nosiness."

When Minion had finished untying her binds and her hands were released, the blue scoundrel stepped forward and draped his cape carefully over her head. Just to be certain that her vision was completely blocked from every angle, he walked around her in a circle, double checking and adjusting the placement of the garment as he went. From underneath the concealing folds of fabric came an impatient sigh as Roxanne waited for him to give his final approval.

When he was satisfied that she couldn't see a thing, he gave his friend a hearty pat on the shoulder and said, "Go ahead, Filet Mignon, take her away!"

"You got it, Boss! All right Miss Ritchi, are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Roxanne felt his hairy robotic arms slide around her as he hoisted her up and placed her carefully over his shoulder, but before he ventured to take a single step, he asked with concern, "How are you doing? You okay up there?"

"Yep, I'm good. This might not be the most comfortable way to travel, but I'm fine."

"Ah, well no worries! We don't have far to go before I can let you down again." He answered cheerfully.

And with that, the spacefish surged forward, carrying the reporter through the dark, unseen recesses of Evil Lair, and ushering her to the beginning of the strangest Thanksgiving celebration she'd ever known.

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**Thanks for reading! Check back next week for chapter 4, and _please review!_ I could use a little Holiday cheer right now, and hearing from you would help to do the trick. :)**

**One more thing, Hunger4Righteousness has published her version of the story. If you haven't already, be sure to check hers out too!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, I know I promised to have this story done before Christmas, or at least to have another** **chapter uploaded before the big day… but I was wrong. Again. Sorry! Bad Fanfiction writer, Sapphire! Bad girl! **

**I wonder when I'll learn to stop setting deadlines for myself; something **_**always**_** ends up coming up and I never seem to be able to follow through. In this case, let's see… my husband was laid off from his job and we had to deal with all the stress that goes along with that, had several bouts of cold and flu, my husband got a NEW job, we had to prepare and shop for Christmas, all four kids have been home from school for nearly the last two weeks… shall I go on? I could! I could go on all day! Sooooo, in light of everything I've had on my plate over the past month, hopefully y'all can forgive me for my slowness. (No worries though guys, everything is settling down now; we're fine! Still busy, but fine!) ;)**

**Now, this was supposed to be one chapter, but just like I tend to do, I couldn't quit writing and it exploded on me, so I split it. Here's the first half of the monstrous chapter; I'll upload the second half in a couple of days. No promises what day though, I don't want to get myself into trouble again. *eyeroll* Please be sure to keep an eye out for it! :)**

**Thanks for hanging in there with me for this story, everyone! I know we're all totally over Thanksgiving by now, but I do hope you're still enjoying yourself!**

**Hope you had a great Christmas everyone! Happy New Year! **

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Having been kidnapped by the devilish duo more times than she could count, Roxanne was completely accustomed to being carried around over the robo-fish's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Being hauled around like luggage was all in a day's work for the experienced victim, and despite being annoyed at constantly being taken away from the pressing responsibilities of her own life, she was usually able to bear it all in stride with a rather blasé attitude.

This time however, things were different. _Nothing_ about this kidnapping was normal, and the word blasé couldn't describe her attitude _or_ the proceedings, even if it was applied in its loosest sense. From the moment he had shown up in her apartment that afternoon things had been shockingly out of the ordinary, and what was even more surprising about the whole affair was that, overall, she thought it was turning out to be a rather _nice_ kind of different… so far.

Listening to the sound of Minion's heavy, metallic feet as he clunked through the echoing corridors and narrow hallways that honeycombed their way throughout Megamind's mysterious lair, she couldn't help but feel more than a bit intrigued by the prospect of having dinner with the man who had terrorized a whole city for over a decade… and wonder what in the world was wrong with her to make her feel that way.

Enclosed in her shroud of darkness as she swayed along, slung over her bearer's shoulder, she realized that even the fact that she was covered in the villain's cape instead of that disgusting old bag was exciting. The silky fabric felt smooth and luxurious against her skin, and smelled good; a warm, safe, enticing smell that both thrilled her, and shockingly, filled her with an odd sense of comfort all at the same time.

Throughout the entire trip through the winding passageways, Minion had prattled on about the dinner they were about to have, and was overjoyed at the surprising turn of events that she would be joining them.

"You know Miss Ritchi, this is a really special occasion; you're our first dinner guest ever!" he gushed as they walked along. "Well, gosh… not just dinner guest; you're just our first guest in general. I'm sure you can imagine we don't get a lot of visitors here… "

Roxanne heard a huff, and then her abductor's distinctive voice say, "Since you're giving out so much information, why don't we just give her the combination to the weapons vault and share the password to the central computer. And while we're at it we can tell her how to find her way right back to the lair on her own so she can just drop by whenever she feels like it!"

"What? I'm not giving out anything top-secret; just making conversation." Minion said defensively.

"Yeah, come on… lighten up, Spacey." Roxanne quipped from her dark enclosure with a snicker. "Are you afraid that if I find out all about your _busy_ social life, that'll instantly spoil all your super-secret plans?"

"Ha-ha! Oh my, that was hilarious." he responded dryly, clearly un-amused. "Have I ever told you that you're the most sarcastic person I know?"

"I am? Really? Because I thought you said I was the _nosiest_ person you know."

"Well, you're that, too!"

"Oh wow! I had no idea I was so talented!" she teased, and then giggled quietly to herself when she heard him groan in frustration.

Casting a sidelong glare at the cape-covered woman being hefted along by his henchman, he thought to himself with a pout,_ Ugh… does she EVER quit? Even when I've got her in my clutches and at my mercy she still won't quit running her mouth! Anyone else would be shaking in their boots, but nooooooo… not her! She just keeps right on… _

Megamind's fuming was interrupted when Minion piped up brightly, "Here we are! All right Miss Ritchi, I'm going to set you down now. Be sure to hang on to me until we get the cape off so you don't lose your balance."

The fish gently lifted her from his shoulder and set her carefully on her feet as she clung to his furry arm. Once she was standing steadily on her own, he let go and lifted the silky garment from her head. "Voilà! Welcome to the _not-so_ evil part of the Evil Lair. So, what do you think?"

"Now just a minute! I'm afraid I'm going to have to correct that _egregious_ mistake for the sake of our guest; _all_ parts of E-vil Lair are evil, and it would be wise for you to remember that… "

But Roxanne barely heard her host as he droned on about how keeping that wise nugget of information in her mind might very well keep her out of trouble; she was too busy gaping at the sight set before her.

Rather than finding a cheap table plunked in the middle of another cold, empty warehouse, or tall industrial shelves stacked with odd looking inventions as she had expected, she found a luxuriously appointed dining room, complete with a long formal dining table and an expensive looking chandelier centered directly above it. Over-head she found artistically arched cathedral ceilings, and the walls were richly hung with thick, lavish draperies and beautiful works of art. The floor was covered in a plush carpet that was a delight to walk on, and Roxanne had a sudden temptation to slip her shoes off and let her toes sink into the softness.

"Wow… " she breathed as she looked around in wide eyed astonishment, taking a few steps forward and turning herself in a slow circle to take in every detail.

"So you like it?" Minion asked in giddy excitement.

Roxanne continued to gaze speechlessly around her for another moment, and then turning to look at the pair of trouble makers, she said with a touch of awe in her voice, "Yeah… how could I _not_ like it? This is amazing!"

At her affirming words, Minion's grin grew to a glowing smile of complete satisfaction, and Megamind once again unknowingly put on a display of his talent at cycling through a wide range of emotions in mere seconds. He started with a tiny smile that tugged at a corner of his mouth and lit his eyes with pleased surprise for a split second, but then with a quick glance around the room he seemed to think better of it, and replaced his smile with a mild scowl that almost seemed to be laced with a touch of embarrassment.

"Oh, I'm _so_ glad to hear you like it! You know, I've always thought it was a shame to have this nice room here but never to be able to share it with anyone. Well Miss Ritchi, I'm certainly glad you're the one we finally get to share it with."

Roxanne smiled at the sweet little creature, genuinely touched at his kindness, and said, "Thanks Minion. So am I."

"Well, I guess I'd better get into the kitchen and finish up those potatoes; I've been away for way too long, I hope they didn't scorch! It won't be long now before we eat, dinner's almost ready. I'll send in the bots to get things started for you while I'm away." With that, the spacefish turned and clunked out of the room, leaving Roxanne and Megamind alone, wrapped in an uncomfortable silence.

The two stood awkwardly for a moment, shooting quick, apprehensive glances at each other until Roxanne finally decided to take it upon herself to break the spell. If she was going to spend her holiday with her adversary, she was determined to do her part to make it as comfortable and pleasant as possible.

With another sweeping look around the room, she said, "Well Megamind, I've got to say… this is _not_ what I expected at all. I'm honestly really impressed."

"You are?" he responded, looking at her dubiously.

Allowing her eyes to settle on him again, she answered as sincerely as she could, "It's like I said to Minion; how could I _not_ be impressed by this? Who would ever think that something this beautiful would be hiding in the back of some old warehouse… or, whatever you guys use for your hide-out."

Megamind's brow wrinkled a bit, and he asked her, "What was it you _were_ expecting to find?"

"I don't know, not this." she answered thoughtfully, walking along the length of the table and allowing her hand to trail delicately along the polished wood as she took in the beautiful craftsmanship. Then stopping to look into his eyes, she continued, "Maybe just more empty rooms stacked up with all your stuff, or a bunch of computers and blinky lights, like your control room."

"Ah... so because I'm the villain, you expect me to live in some drafty, dank warehouse, huh? Or maybe I'd make my living quarters look just like the cells in the prison. Oh yes, now that would certainly make sense; why _wouldn't_ I feel right at home in a place like that?"

"No, that's not what I meant… "

"Maybe because you're a reporter, you should decorate your apartment to look just like the production room at your studio!" he snapped defensively.

"What? Why are you trying to pick another argument with me? I'm _trying_ to compliment you, Megamind! All I'm saying is that I think your dining room is beautiful, and going by what I've seen of the other parts of your lair, I was just surprised to find something so… elegant."

Her explanation seemed sincere enough, so the offended alien backed down a little. He couldn't help but wonder why her apparently innocent comment had bothered him so much to begin with. Everyone had always thought the worst of him from the day he first arrived on this planet as an infant; he had become used to it, and after a while learned to welcome it as part of his evil image. Why was it that he suddenly seemed to care so much about what this annoyingly snarky, sarcastic woman thought about him?

Just then, their rather tense conversation was interrupted by several bots as they swooped into the room, each carrying something in their spindly, robotic arms. Roxanne immediately noticed that these ones looked different than any of the others she'd seen before from her vantage point when she was tied to whatever contraption of impending doom Megamind happened to be using at the moment. These ones were rounded, less spiky, and far less intimidating looking. Never having seen anything like them before, she couldn't help but wonder if these particular bots were meant to stay exclusively in the living area, and act as some kind of servant, or butler.

They went immediately to work, two of them setting the table with a white cloth and dishes, and the other pouring wine into two glasses, handing one to its master and then flying over to pass one to her. Despite the more mundane appearance of these particular additions to the villain's collection of mechanical pets, the only experience she'd ever had with the odd creatures was to see them snapping and behaving aggressively. Instinctively, she was slightly reluctant to accept the glass from the bot as it floated before her with its mechanical arm outstretched.

"Go ahead and take it, it won't hurt you." he said with a wave of his hand when he noticed her reluctance. "These are a different sort than the ones you're used to seeing; they're just plain old _rho-bots_, programmed to do whatever they're told. The ones you're familiar with are _cyborgs_; they actually have a mind of their own, just like you and I, and half the time the blasted things are using that to see what trouble they can stir up and make things as difficult for me as possible."

"Okay… guess I'll take your word for it." she responded as she glanced up at her host, who was standing at the other end of the table, watching her. She observed the creature for another moment to be sure it didn't show any sign of snappiness like its counterparts, and then reached out cautiously, taking the proffered glass from its metal hand. The bot bobbed in the air in front of her a moment longer, and then zipped away to attend to whatever task was next on its pre-programmed to-do list.

"Uh, thanks." She muttered as she watched the bot dash away, and then turned to Megamind with a look of mild surprise. Her blue host said nothing, but shook his head in amusement and snorted a quick laugh at her reaction.

Taking a sip from her glass, she thought a moment and then said, "You know, to be honest, I guess I _was_ basing my assumption about what the rest of your lair would look like on you too, but only because you don't seem much like the extravagantly sophisticated type. This is more of what I'd expect to see in one of the Scott's hoity-toity houses. No offense." she added when his green eyes snapped to look at her with an indignant glare. "You though, you're more like a… a rock star. I don't know, I just never saw this coming judging by the Megamind I see a couple of times a week. It just doesn't seem to fit."

_Rock star_… He couldn't help but grin at her description of the way she saw him; she had no idea how right she really was. "Ah yes, a dining room that's decorated in a more _rock-star-esque_ style certainly sounds a lot more fun than all of this, doesn't it! Most of this is Minion's doing. I mean, I can't deny I had a _bit_ of a hand in it, but that was quite a while back; when we were first out on our own, and even then it was really Minion who handled all the details. The majority of my contributions have been limited to supplying whatever he needed to make his dream dining room a reality. He really is a fantastic fish; I suppose he was trying to make up for our… previous living situation."

Roxanne watched him as he spoke and noticed an imperceptive furrowing of his brows as he thought back to the days of his youth. She'd heard all about his unconventional childhood and had certainly felt badly for him; no one should have to grow up in a prison for crying out loud, but she'd never thought too deeply on the subject. Now, seeing a glimmer of the hardship he must have had to live through reflected in his eyes, she felt a twinge of compassion for this man that was supposed to be pure evil to the core.

She watched him for another moment, and then turned her eyes once again to her surroundings with a new appreciation for both the room, and for the aliens who lived there.

"So Minion did most of this, huh? Are the rest of your living quarters this fancy too?"

"No, nothing this extravagant; Minion completely outdid himself on this dining room, it's almost ridiculous." He said with a sigh and a roll of his green eyes.

"Hmmmm, yeah. It is kind of over the top, isn't it? But in a nice way." She said, and then glancing back at him again, she favored him with a little smile.

Megamind had never seen his captive smile at him like _that_ before; it was amazing what those twinkling blue eyes and that dimple that showed itself on her cheek when she looked at him like that seemed to do to him. Before he even realized what he was doing, he blurted out, "The rest of the rooms in the living spaces are smaller than this one and not nearly as elaborate, but they're comfortable enough. Now the actual Lair, that's another story. It may seem to you that you've seen quite a few of the rooms and storage spaces during the execution of my plans, but in all actuality, you've only seen a _miniscule_ portion of E-vil Lair. You'd be _amazed_ if you ever had the chance to see it all in its entirety!"

"Ah-ha, _now_ look who's giving out all your secrets!" she said as she glanced at him with a smirk. "Well since I'm your guest today, does that mean I get to go on a guided tour?"

Megamind suddenly stopped, his eyes growing wide as he realized what he had been doing since the moment Minion had left the room. She was right; this time it wasn't his henchman giving out all his secrets, it was him, and he was absolutely flabbergasted at the amount of personal and top secret-information he had just spilled to his arch-enemy's girlfriend. His eyes narrowed as he turned to glare at her in frustration for her uncanny ability to push him into making a fool out of himself every single time they occupied the same room together. _Curse that woman and her wicked reporter-wiles!_

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**Please remember to look for chapter 5 in a few days! **

**A little review would be so appreciated; hearing from you would help me ring in the New Year with a great big smile! (I could use one of those right about now.)**

**Oh! Mega-fan extra credit points if you can guess where the inspiration for this part of the story came from. Let me know what your guess is when you review! I'll be sure to tell you what it is in the Author's Notes for the next chapter… maybe. Or maybe in the one after that. (Yes, there are going to be at least two more chapters. This story won't quit writing itself!) But I_ SHALL_ tell you! I promise! :)**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Back again! I felt bad for waiting so long to update after chapter 3, so I decided to expedite the chapter-uploading process; only a week since my last update… not bad! But just so you know, I haven't had much of a chance to work on the next chapter (or two, or three; not sure how long this will end up), so pleeeease be patient with me! I'll get it done as soon as I can, I promise!**

**Thanks to everyone who shared your input in my guessing game about where my inspiration for chapter 4 came from. I love it when you guys play along! As of right now I have a few guesses; they're ALL fantastic guesses by the way, but one of them was spot on. All I can say is… BadIdeaGenius, you're a GENIUS! You got it right! You are the MEGA-FAN of the week, my friend! (A **_**very**_** prestigious award!) I'll be sure to share all the details with the class when I finish up the story. **

**Okay, all you adoring fans of handsome, big-headed blue aliens, on with the show!**

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Roxanne had turned her attention to the works of art hanging from the walls, completely oblivious to the suspicious scowl that was presently being shot her way by her blue host. "So, I don't suppose any of these paintings could have possibly been 'misappropriated' from the art museum downtown, could they? Because some of these are looking _awfully_ familiar to me… like that one right there; it just happens to look _exactly_ like the one that went missing from the museum last spring. "

"Oh-ho, I'm sure you'd just loooove to know _all_ about that, wouldn't you? As if I'm going to tell you!"

Noticing the complete change in the tone of his voice, Roxanne turned to look at him questioningly and asked with a defensive edge, "What are you talking about _now_?"

"Oh, right. Are we going to put on our innocent act now? You know exactly what I'm talking about! My, my… you have your nosy reporter skills honed to a razor edge today; I didn't even notice that you've been dragging information out of me from the moment we set foot in this room! No wonder Minion is always falling into your snare; if you can trip _me_ up like this, that poor little fish doesn't stand a chance!"

Roxanne was genuinely taken aback by his accusation. Despite the fact that it _did_ look rather incriminating when she thought back to all the times she had done exactly what he was accusing her of, this_ one _time, prying into Megamind's personal life and his super-secret plans for the sake of scooping a story hadn't even entered her mind. She could honestly say that she was simply trying to make pleasant conversation with her unusual host. Hearing him place the blame on her the _one_ time she was innocent for something she had been guilty of so often in the past pricked at her conscience, and, if she allowed herself to admit it, rather hurt her feelings.

Attempting to hide her wounded pride, the offended reporter snapped indignantly, "That just shows how much you know, genius! You're _miles_ off the mark on that one; all I was doing was trying to have an innocent conversation with you!"

"Ah, innocent… _riiiiight._ Well, you'll just have to forgive me if I don't fall all over myself to spill every ounce of information you dig for from here on out, Little Miss Nosey-Pants. You've been caught red-handed! In fact, if I remember right, I believe I warned you about this back in the control room… _'__I__f I detect even an ounce of snooping or an iota of digging, it's right back to the chair for you and on with the show, whether we've eaten or not! ' _Does that ring a bell?"

"Ugggh, Megamind, you're not listening! Really, I wasn't _digging_, I was just trying to…" and then she stopped. Hold on… why should she feel the need to explain herself to _Megamind_? _He's_ the bad guy here; she had no reason to be hurt or to feel guilty, and that deep feeling of disappointment that was beginning to settle over her like a ton of bricks at the thought of losing out on this opportunity to spend her holiday with Metro City's most infamous evildoer was ridiculous!

Shoring up her wayward emotions, the tiny wounded frown that had shadowed her blue eyes for a split second was suddenly replaced by a wicked glare as her temper began to rise. Clenching her fists into balls as the knot of frustration that had begun to form in her chest tightened, she snapped angrily, "You know what? Fine! Whatever! I don't even care. I'm not going to bother to try and explain myself to _you_. You just go right on ahead and _un_-invite me to your little party and stick me back in that chair… let's just get this over with so Wayne can come throw your keester back in prison and I can go home!"

"Suits me just fine! This whole thing was Minion's idea anyway; I can't _believe_ I let him talk me into this. Well, never again, Miss Ritchi… you've certainly shown your true colors; a reporter is _never_ to be trusted!" the villain huffed with a superior tone as he stood with his arms crossed and looked down his nose at her with distaste.

His infuriating expression made her feel as though she was a guilty child receiving a stern lecture from a stuffy, no-nonsense teacher. Her defenses immediately went up and she defiantly turned to face him, her lip curling in a furious sneer as her eyes narrowed at him venomously; she hadn't done a thing for crying out loud, and after all, the very idea of Megamind making her feel guilty for _anything_ was absurd!

Although he was beginning to feel a sense of relief that things were finally settling back to their normal, comfortable, victim/villain pattern and that it appeared he was about to be spared from the humiliation of allowing Roxanne to see some of the more embarrassing things that Minion always insisted on incorporating into their Thanksgiving celebration, the blue devil couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that the annoyingly inquisitive journalist wouldn't be joining them after all. Despite himself, he had begun to warm up to the idea of spending time with his beautiful captive… an evening of enjoyable conversation with Roxanne Ritchi? It had almost seemed too good to be true, and now it appeared that's just what it was.

Ah well, no matter, a villain should never allow himself to cultivate a soft spot for his victims; that was dangerous ground to tread, and he could see how allowing this unprecedented evening of fraternizing with his abductee of choice could easily lead to that. He had been struggling with a soft spot for Miss Ritchi for years as it was… an evening of wining and dining the lovely blue eyed woman was the _last_ thing he needed.

"All right, my snoopy little reporter, on with the show!" Megamind quipped evilly in a low, velvety tone as his superior and slightly offended visage melted into a more sinister grin, and he began to move toward her to secure his victim and put his original e-vil plan back on track.

Just as he crossed the short distance between them and had reached for the can of knock out spray he had tucked away in his belt, a hubbub of activity at the arched doorway to the dining room snatched the attention of the two combatants.

"Hehe! Look at that! It's sure nice to see the two of you putting aside your differences for a few hours and getting along so well!" Minion said with a congenial chuckle as he distractedly glanced their way, his gigantic robotic arms balanced with several dishes and platters of scrumptious entrees.

The instant the robo-fish made his appearance with his delicious cargo, the entire dining room was thick with the enticingly savory smell of Thanksgiving as it drifted from the richly laden plates, and Roxanne's stomach immediately began to complain about its prolonged state of emptiness. As the hungry reporter began to feel a low and rather pathetic rumble emanating from her belly, she discretely lifted her hands to clutch at her waistline in an attempt at muffling the sound so as not alert her adversary and embarrass herself more than she already had.

_This just sucks_ thought Roxanne with disappointment as she looked wistfully at the platters that Minion was setting carefully on the sideboard. When his arms were free, he turned to direct the assembly of odd looking bots that followed behind him, each with a serving tray of its own clutched in its metal pincers. Because the domestically inclined spacefish had wisely opted to cover each of the dishes with a heavy lid, she wasn't able to catch a glimpse of the treasures that lay hidden underneath, but judging by the smell that teased her as it wafted through the room, it was a feast fit for a king… or a hopeful Evil Overlord, as the case may be.

_Gah! I wish he'd just listen; I don't want to leave!_ _I was really starting to look forward to this… look at all that food! And it was actually kind of fun spending time with him, until he had to go and be so stubborn _she complained to herself with frustration as the bots placed their dishes on the table.

As she watched the proceedings, gloomily lost in thought, she began to detect the distinct impression of being observed. Glancing over at Megamind, she realized that her intuition had been correct; the blue villain stood next to her, hand still on the can of knock out spray, but he was watching her curiously out of the corner of his eye with an expression that bordered on… regret? Maybe even a hint of _affection?_

Both Roxanne and Megamind realized at the same time that they had each been caught in the act of allowing their gentler side to show through, and instantly, the two adversaries turned to face each other once again, replacing that momentary glimmer of softness with a new show of indignant pride.

When the final bot placed the last platter on the table, Minion turned to his boss and their hungry guest and began, "All right, we're almost ready now. I just need to run back to the kitchen and grab the rolls and the turkey, and then we can… Wait a minute, what's going on here?"

_Don't these two EVER quit?_ Thought the spacefish when he saw his friends standing tensely facing one another and glaring at each other bitterly.

Poor Minion, he had been overjoyed that Miss Ritchi, whom he had always liked, would be joining them for their Holiday celebration. He lived to serve and was thrilled at the prospect of lavishing his gift on someone other than Sir, who often overlooked all the time and effort that went into the preparations for a feast of this magnitude. Sharing their table with the lovely reporter had seemed like an inspired idea, and when his boss had given the ok, the sentimental little fish could barely contain his excitement. But now, judging by the looks on their faces… well, it seemed that all his hopes and dreams of entertaining their first and highly honored guest were about to vanish like a puff of wind.

But Minion had always been an optimist; he wasn't about to roll over and let his fondest wishes for what was likely to be a once in a lifetime day die without a fight. It appeared that a little "tough love" was required.

Assuming his most stern expression, the soft-hearted henchman looked directly at the scrapping duo and said, "Don't tell me you're at it again! I can't turn my back on you two for a second! Seriously, I couldn't have been gone for more than ten minutes; you were fine when I left… what in the world could have possibly happened in _TEN MINUTES_ to get you two grumbling at each other? _SIR?"_

"What? It's not ME, it's _her_ fault! She's snooping around and asking questions, using those big blue eyes and that smile to drag information out of me against my will… just like she does with you!"

"Miss _Ritchi!_ You promised!" Minion gasped as he turned a critical eye toward the brunette.

"Wha… WHAT? No, I swear… all I was doing was trying to _talk_ to him! I wasn't digging, or dragging, or prying, or whatever he wants to call it. I was just trying to have a conversation with him, and _HE_ started jumping to conclusions."

As Megamind and Roxanne turned to each other with a fresh batch of glares, Minion raised his metal hand to his dome and pressed his thumb and forefinger to the rounded glass as though he was warding off a headache. Shaking his scaly body in the water of his habitat, he sighed in deep frustration at their childish bickering.

"Go ahead and get the rope, Minion! She failed to keep her end of the bargain, so it's time to… "

"Wait! _No!_ Sir, you can't do this! Come on, it sounds to me like it was just a silly misunderstanding; we can give her another chance! I know she won't do again, will you Miss Ritchi?"

Roxanne turned to look blankly at their aquatic referee; deep down she still wanted to stay, but wasn't anyone listening to her? She was innocent, darn it, and she sure as heck wasn't going to admit guilt for something she didn't do. Setting her chin truculently, she answered, "I _can't_ promise I won't do it again if I didn't do anything to begin with, Minion. Why don't you tell _him_ to… "

"There you go Sir, see?" Minion jumped in quickly without even allowing her to finish, producing a groan of frustration from their would-be guest. "Now what about that second chance? Come on, please? I really want her to stay; I was… all excited about actually getting to have a guest over here for dinner… "

The tender hearted fish allowed his voice to trail off dejectedly as his brown eyes dropped to the floor with a frown. He had seen that stubborn look in his boss' eye a million times before; it was obvious his mind was already made up. _Guess I might as well go get the rope…_

No matter how livid he was that Roxanne had tricked him into divulging sensitive information after he had allowed himself to let his guard down, Megamind just couldn't say no to his best friend when he saw how forlorn he looked.

_This must really mean the world to that fantastic little fish. And you know, I suppose it really would be nice to have her here, even if she is infuriatingly sneaky and driven by a deep need to pry into my personal affairs._

Besides, there were other ways to exact retribution for her trickery… wickedly subtle, _masterfully_ devious ways…

Megamind stepped to his henchman, and placing a consoling hand on his furry shoulder, he said, "Oh, all right… I suppose I can find it in my black heart to give her one more chance, but _only_ one. Next time, Miss Ritchi, you won't find me quite so merciful. So what do you say? Can you manage to keep your curiosity to yourself for a few more hours, or shall we just go ahead and scrap dinner and get on with the show?"

_Ugh, can he be ANY more infuriating? _Just his arrogant smirk _alone_ made her want to take one of the platters of food on the sideboard and smear it all over his blue face, and the fact that he still thought she was snooping and now she was expected to cease any further attempts of this _insidious_ act made her long to tell him _exactly_ where he could shove his "merciful" offer… but then she looked at Minion.

He was simply too sweet with those big, soft brown eyes and that pudgy baby-face. She couldn't disappoint him.

Biting back her pride once again for the sake of the sensitive little creature, she was barely able to choke out in a rather strangled voice, "Fine. Whatever… but for Minion! _Not_ for your sake!"

Minion's face was instantly lit with a glowing smile, and he cheered, "Oh thank goodness! Sir, thank you, and you too Miss Ritchi! Okay, now I'm going to run into the kitchen and get the last two platters, oh! I need to send for the rest of the bots… "

Megamind suddenly turned to his sidekick with a hint of alarm, and then quickly glancing back at Roxanne he said in a nervous tone, "Uh, no Minion. You know, you really don't need to bother with them; they have other tasks to attend to. Besides, I think we'll have enough going on without them in here… "

"Oh no, Sir! We can't have Thanksgiving without _them!_ It wouldn't be the same!"

Roxanne couldn't help but notice the momentary but distinct change in his demeanor as he contemplated whatever the impending bots were about to do. His self-satisfied expression shifted for a split second to one of almost painful embarrassment as he flicked his eyes in her direction one last time.

_Hmmmm, this is going to be interesting! I'm glad I decided to stay…_

"All right, be back in a jiffy, and you two try not to fight while I'm gone! Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!" With that, the robo-fish turned to trounce out of the room, leaving his friends alone once again.

_Yes, Minion…_ thought the blue schemer as his scintillating green eyes turned to settle on his dinner guest. _Oh yes, so much fun! You have NO idea how wickedly fun this is going to be!_

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**Reviews please? Anyone? I really do love your input, it's what makes taking the time to write these stories worth while.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Back again, and thanks so much for sticking with me and coming back to read this story even though I've gotta be one of the slowest authors on the net! :)**

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When their fur-clad chef disappeared through the arched doorway to fetch the rest of the feast and round up the remainder of their unusual guests, the temporary reprieve on Roxanne's acute frustration evaporated like a drop of water on a red-hot stove; she could almost hear it sizzle. Being alone with the man who at the moment was pissing her off more than anyone she'd ever known rubbed and prodded sharply at her wounded pride.

Turning again to glare at him darkly, she was immediately struck by the odd expression he wore. Instead of scowling wickedly back at her as she would have expected, or bearing that odd, nervous look that had settled over his features for a moment at Minion's mention of the bots' appearance at their holiday affair, he looked relaxed and smug.

His incomparably green eyes gazed at her with an infuriatingly lidded expression of complacency, and a cool, confident grin slid across his cerulean lips like a wave across the sand. Because of his promise to Minion to give the pushy reporter one more chance before she was banished back the chair, his hands were somewhat tied as far as what he could do to exact reh-vange on her for her incessant sneakiness, but his fiendish creativity knew no bounds. There were _always_ ways around things like that… where there's a will, there's a way, and he was bound and determined to find a way to make Miss Ritchi pay for being so nosy.

All he needed now was the perfect sneaky plan. For the time being, his scheme consisted of nothing more than finding the most effective way to annoy her, and to use that to his advantage throughout the entirety of their dinner together. Not the most well thought out plan to be certain, but no matter; he knew abominable inspiration would strike at just the right moment, and when it did, Roxanne Ritchi would be at his mercy.

"What are _you_ looking at?" snapped the angry reporter.

"Oh, nothing. Now that we seem to have all the wrinkles ironed out of this dinner date of ours… "

"HA! _Don't_ flatter yourself, this is NOT a date; not even close! I'm going along with this for _Minion_, and Minion _only_." She burst in, thrusting her index finger in his direction to help illustrate her point.

"Call it what you will; but the fact remains that you're spending an evening wining and dining with Metrocity's most handsome and mysterious bachelor… now if that doesn't look suspiciously like a date to me, then I don't know what does." he said with calculated smoothness as his viridian eyes probed hers. That suspiciously scheming twinkle that was beginning to develop there left no doubt in her mind that he was up to something; she could almost _see_ the reams of diabolical ideas as they tumbled endlessly through his mind.

"As I was saying before you _rudely_ interrupted me, now that we seem to have the wrinkles ironed out of this _dinner… date_," he repeated, slowly enunciating the two dreaded words that had ignited her anger only seconds before. "I'm actually quite looking forward to it. Minion's right; we're long over-due to have a guest in for dinner with us, and since you _are_ the most regular partaker of our evil, it seems only natural that you should be the one to receive that honor."

"Hmm. Yeah… not so sure you can consider being forced to be bait in all your stupid traps with a can of knockout gas and a rope as _partaking_."

"Oh, potato, tomato! Now then, let's get on with our celebration, shall we? After all, we are on a tight _shed-yule_… you _do_ still have a date with doom as soon as we've finished up with our date here…"

"Stop calling it a date!"

"… and we wouldn't want things to wear on too far into the evening." he continued on in a tone that was serene and unconcerned as though he hadn't even registered her complaint. "It really is _so_ important to be mindful of Metro Mahn's plans for the day; we want to be _certain_ we interrupt his Thanksgiving celebration at the most _in_convenient time! Now, why don't you go ahead and make yourself comfortable." he said as he indicated an elegant chair situated at one end of the dining table with a sweep of his hand.

Following his grand motion with her eyes toward the chair and then glancing back at him stubbornly, she answered with a surprisingly level-headed tone considering all his prodding, "I don't think so; I'm ok right here."

_Hmmm, she's just not biting. Sarcastic, gorgeous, AND keeping it cool under pressure. If I'm going to make this afternoon as uncomfortable for that pushy little busybody as possible, I'd better start laying it on thick._

"Really? I would think it would be far more comfortable to sit down during dinner, but suit yourself. My, my, _where_ in the world did you learn manners like that, anyway? I must say I'm rather surprised; I would think that a cultured woman such as yourself would be more informed about proper etiquette. Hmmm, I wonder how your lack of decent manners goes over at one of your pretty-boy hero's extravagant parties. That must make for an awkward situation; I know the Scott's tend to be rather _particular_ about that sort of thing."

Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, "Oh, that's a riot. Save it, Spacey; I'll sit down when I feel like it! What's your problem anyway? How come all of a sudden you're so relaxed and chatty? I'm surprised you're willing to say more than three syllables at a time to me now that you've decided to come up with your little _conspiracy theory_ about me and my 'nosy reporter skills'."

"Water under the bridge!" he said dismissively with a sly smile. "It's time we move past all that and focus on the _president_ moment."

Roxanne looked at him with wide, puzzled eyes as she attempted to decipher what that particular pronunciation error could mean. She could usually figure out exactly what he was trying to say when he made his grammatical faux-pas without much effort, but this one caught her off guard and momentarily had her stumped.

"Wait a minute, what did you say? _President?_ Don't you mean _present_ moment?" she said amidst a flurry of snickers.

At her attempt to set him straight, his calm, complacent visage crumbled, and the lofty grin on his face clouded to a dark scowl. "Do you _always_ have to try and correct me? That's exactly what I _said_! And stop that laughing like that; I don't find anything amusing about this at all!"

"Well I do! This stuff is _always_ good for a laugh!" she responded mirthfully.

"And of _course_ I'm going to correct you; and insult you and drive you crazy… who else is gonna do it if I don't? It's one of my perks as your captive; that's what I'm _supposed_ to do!"

His eyes narrowed at her, perturbed by her apparent misunderstanding of the perks and benefits that she was supposed to receive as his captive. Insulting and incessantly correcting him was most _certainly_ not on that list!

Just as he opened his mouth to protest, she silenced him with a quick, "_Ah-ah!_ No you don't! Don't even bother to tell me that's not part of my _"Kidnapping Package", _adding a roll of her eyes for emphasis. "I went ahead and added that in there myself. If I have to be roped into your schemes on a regular basis, I want to be able to get some enjoyment out of it too, and there's _nothing_ more fun than making the _Great Megamind_ squirm. I mean, seriously! What do you want, for me to just sit there like a good little victim and scream? _No… way!_ Besides, we wouldn't want that great big head to swell up any more than it already is; someone's gotta temper that over-inflated ego of yours with a good dose of reality!"

Megamind could do nothing more than stand with his fists clenched and his blue features pinched in a withering glare as he stared back at her fiercely. Sit there and scream for him? Yes, that's _exactly_ what he wanted her to do! But of course she wouldn't; she never had, not even the first time she awoke from the knockout gas to gaze wide eyed and surprised into his blue face. She had looked a little nervous, maybe even the slightest bit fearful that first time around when her role as his victim was so new to her, but she had never once graced him with a single scream.

Now arguing on the other hand… and back talk, and cheap shots and insults… he had heard those things flowing from her like water down the Nile more times than he even cared to count, and now she had done it again. She had talked him into a corner without even breaking a sweat, and here he was, scrambling to come up with an acceptable comeback, but finding that his incredibly intelligent and highly advanced mind had suddenly gone blank. _Ugh, how does she DO that?_

Frustrated that his crudely formed and continually evolving master plan of retribution wasn't working, he decided it was imperative that he get things turned around in his direction before _she_ snatched the advantage. Opening his mouth to throw out any stammering attempt he could scrape up to return her jab and regain control of the situation, he was suddenly interrupted by yet another poorly timed burst of activity at the entrance to the dining room.

Green eyes and blue both turned toward the door as a new round of bots appeared; this small group even more unusual than the last. These three were far larger than the others, wider and somewhat oval in shape, with a single glowing orb in the center that apparently served as an eye. Their robotic arms were bulkier than those of their predecessors, and appeared to be built for lifting heavy objects.

Roxanne's inquisitive spirit was suddenly piqued and her verbal sparring match with Megamind was all but forgotten; could these be the bots that had nearly caused her captor to squirm with barely concealed embarrassment? Oh… now she was _really_ curious; it appeared that they were each carrying something. She couldn't quite catch a clear glimpse of them, but they seemed to be odd looking things of different sizes, and some of them were apparently rather cumbersome.

Despite the raging inferno of curiosity that was beginning to burn inside her, she had a difficult time getting a good look at the trio of new bots; her view of them was rather obscured by a rowdy group of the standard issue, spikey, more aggressive sort with which she was familiar. Bursting through the door in a noisy, bowging bundle of metal, glowing domes, and spindly arms, the reporter was strangely reminded of a horde of spirited revelers at football game, or a passel of excited children on the last day of school.

She watched as her tormentor's metal pets shoved and snapped at one another like scrapping puppies, lost in the fascination of just how _alive_ they actually seemed to be. She was beginning to see why Megamind seemed to be so fond of them; each one appeared to have a personality of its own… an actual _personality! _They seemed to be thinking and reasoning, making decisions of their own free will. They were incredibly amusing, almost endearing in their own way, and although she was loath to admit it, she was utterly amazed.

As they flitted and tumbled through the air, bumping into one another playfully and hassling the odd looking bots that she still couldn't quite get a good look at, one of them happened to turn its long mechanical eye in her direction. At first, the busy brainbot didn't seem to notice her; it turned away immediately to swat mischievously at one of its cohorts, but an instant later it did a double take, swinging back in her direction to lock its glowing red eye on her and bowging menacingly.

The moment the alarm was sounded, more than a dozen matching mechanical eyes turned toward her and responded in kind. The luxurious dining room was suddenly awash with the brash, echoing bowgs of the agitated brainbots, and intermixed with the occasional mechanical voice barking _"Intruder Alert"._

Gathering themselves up to pounce on Miss Ritchi, who most certainly had _no_ business being in the dining room, the brainbots continued to push and shove at one another in an attempt to place themselves in the prime position to be the first to make the capture. Daddy would be so _pleased_ with the good little bot that was able to nab the sneaky reporter! There was _bound_ to be a treat in store… maybe some extra time to play fetch, or maybe even a brand new wrench, all to itself!

Roxanne's amused fascination began to drain away when the band of rowdy bots suddenly turned to her with what appeared to be an excessive amount of aggression. Now _this_ was more like the behavior she was used to seeing, even worse in fact; snapping metal jaws, wickedly grasping pincers and glaring red eyes… and all of them focused directly on _her._

She began to back away slowly so as not to encourage the angry bots to strike, her eyes growing wide as she watched them nervously and wondered what she should use for cover when they finally stopped shoving one another and decided it was time to waylay their victim. She _hated_ being manhandled by the brainbots; in Megamind's presence they may be as playful as Labradors, but even with him they were given to biting from time to time, and they were far too rough, always leaving her scraped and bruised.

Finally, the brainbots decided they'd had enough of their shoving match, and all at once they rushed forward with a swoop toward their quarry with their metal arms outstretched, ready to put an instant stop to her poking around and bring her to Daddy to collect to their reward.

Having already backed up as far as the ample space in the room allowed, Roxanne bumped roughly into the sideboard with a clatter and threw her arms up in front of her with a quick, startled cry, turning away and cringing in anticipation of feeling those cold metal pincers plucking her roughly from the carpet, or even worse, experiencing those sharp, jagged jaws clamping down on some important part of her anatomy. Although they'd never actually bitten her, she'd seen them nip and bite at Megamind a multitude of times and she knew it was only a matter of time before they bit her as well. Judging by the aggressiveness that was lurking in their red-eyed glare, she was suddenly certain that today the time had finally come.

But instead of feeling the sharp pinch of their grasping metal claws and the bite of their bristling jaws, she was shocked to hear a sudden and very threatening _"NO!"_ directly behind her.

Allowing her arms to drop as she turned around slowly, she was astonished to see Megamind standing directly between her and his hostile pets, blocking their way to her protectively. She fleetingly wondered how he had gotten there so fast; he had been standing a fair distance away from her a moment ago when they were arguing, and he would have had to scramble across the room _incredibly_ quickly in order to get there before his creations were able to lay hold of her.

"No! Bad bots! No, no, no!" Megamind barked threateningly at the crew of very confused brainbots, who were now glancing back and forth among themselves with a look of puzzlement in their bright orbs.

Suddenly, his blue hands shot out and grabbed hold of the nearest bot, grasping it harshly by its metal arms and glaring directly into its single, startled eye. Through clenched teeth, the angry villain snarled, "No biting, you stupid tin cans! You will NOT hurt Miss Ritchi! No! Do you understand?"

A nervous ripple of intimidation rumbled throughout the assembly, and each bot gave a pathetic bowg in affirmative… oh yes, they understood perfectly.

With a satisfied nod, Megamind let go of the poor trembling creature and watched it bolt back to its brothers to cower in the background. He stared at them ominously for a moment, as if issuing them a silent challenge, and then proceeded to warn them in a threatening tone, "Miss Ritchi is my _guest _today, and none of you are allowed to harm her. Any bot that decides to disobey this order will immediately be put out of commission and spend the next three months in mothballs at the bottom of the storage facility, is that clear?"

Three months in the bottom of that dusty old storage room? Every bot knew the tales of woe that went along with being temporarily decommissioned; joints and domes caked with grime, waking up to find your programming hopelessly outdated and enduring the ribbing of your fellow bots at being so behind the times until Daddy got around to giving you that update. Even a week in mothballs was considered near torture for a naughty bot, but three months? Now that seemed a bit excessive… Daddy must be _really_ mad to make a threat like that!

Another round of submissive bowgs echoed through the crowd as each bot floated before their creator, quaking nervously. Despite their submission to his request however, the poor things were completely perplexed; Miss Ritchi was daddy's victim, right? Granted, they may have been a tad bit rough today, but weren't they _supposed_ to help him capture her when the opportunity presented itself? But now he was saying she was his… guest! Their poor synthetic brains were spinning with confusion, and they continued to nervously shoot quick, puzzled glances back and forth at one another as if to silently say "I don't get it".

When Megamind could see that the brainbots wear listening and behaving themselves, and appeared ready to submit to his orders without even the slightest thought of disobedience, he softened. Approaching the bot he had snatched out of thin air, he reached out and ran his hand gently over its dome, saying soothingly, "That's better now! There you go… it's okay. You're a good boy."

Then moving through the knot of his mechanical pets, he smiled and began to coo playfully to each of them in turn, "And you too; yes, and you… Daddy's so pleased with his bots, yes he is!"

The instant he spoke to them favorably, their demeanor changed from a sheepishly cringing, pouty mass of metal, to a swirling pack of pure mechanized excitement, reminding Roxanne once again of a litter of playful, wiggling puppies. She watched speechlessly as he affirmed the final bot for its improved behavior and sent it on its way to play on the other side of the dining room with its brethren. Everything about the situation she had just witnessed was… astonishing! And touching. And completely unbelievable. Why hadn't she ever noticed this side of her conceited captor before?

Finally turning toward his guest with an exasperated sigh, he said, "It's fine now; you don't have to worry about a thing. They won't bother you for the rest of the night… well, actually, let me rephrase that. They won't be aggressive with you again, but they'll most likely bother you; drive you _insane_ as likely as not!" And then shooting a quick, weary scowl in their direction, he muttered under his breath with a shake of his head, "Ugh… stupid, brainless tin cans. How many times do I have to tell them no biting?"

_Whoa… wait a minute. Ah-HA! I can use those bothersome little devils…ooooh Miss Ritchi, karma is about to serve up a dish of retribution that's smooth and sweet! Yes, you're about to have the most annoying night of your life, you sneaky little vixen! That'll teach you to poke your nose where it doesn't belong!_

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**Hope you liked this chapter... be sure to keep an eye out for the next installment! Thanks for reading, and please review! ****Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**On with the story! Thanks for coming back again!**

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Taking a deep, calming breath, Roxanne looked at her host and said, "Wow. That was a bit… startling. I don't think I've ever seen them act like _that_ with me before. What was that all about, anyway?"

Rather than answering, the distracted villain stood apparently lost in thought, a mischievously smug smile washing over his face, completely oblivious the fact that he was being spoken to.

_Ugh, what's he up to now? He can be so spacey!_ "Hey! Megamind! Hello… I'm talking to you!"

Suddenly roused from his own private world of developing plots and cunning plans, he looked up at her and dazedly asked, "Whaa?"

"The brainbots… what's up with them? They've never tried to go after me like that before."

"You've never been loose in the private sections of the Lair like this before, either. Think of them like guard dogs; their just protecting their territory."

"But protecting it from _me?_ What do they think I'm going to do?"

"They'd do that with anyone they came across wandering around in here unaccompanied. I think they were too busy horsing around to notice me when they first came in the room, and when they saw you they thought you were in here alone and up to no good. Protecting the Lair is part of their programming, although they do seem to be taking it a bit too seriously. As far as what they think you're going to do in here; you _are_ Roxanne Ritchi… what do you _think_ they think you're going to do? You were just caught doing it not fifteen minutes ago."

"Ugh, Megamind! Are you going to start with that again?"

"No… no… like I said before; water under the bridge. You asked me a question and I simply gave you my answer." he said matter of factly, although a keen observer would have noticed the slightest hint of a scheming twinkle in his bright green eyes.

No one was a keener observer than Roxanne, and she took note of that scheming glint the instant it began to show itself in those emerald depths. But in light of the way he stepped in on her behalf, she decided to let it slide for the moment rather than call him out on the obvious cover up and do her best to steer the rest of the evening in a more positive direction… let it slide, but continue to be watchful for the _faintest_ sign that he was beginning to pull whatever trick he had up his sleeve. With a deep sigh, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well anyway, thanks for what you did; jumping in there like that."

Megamind's cunning smile faded for a moment as a glimmer of uncertainty began to materialize in the back of his mind.

_There she goes again, saying thank you…_

That was the second time in a day, the second time _ever_ that anyone other than Minion had said thank you to him; he knew that for a fact. His incredible memory was like a steel trap; he never forgot a thing, and he was _certain_ that those two words had never before been uttered to him by anyone… especially no one this beautiful. The effect they suddenly seemed to be having on him was astounding, and more than a little unsettling. In an instant, all of his delightfully forming plans to exact payback by spoiling her holiday was in immediate danger of evaporating like a fog before the gentle, warming rays of the sun, and he couldn't have that.

It appeared that Miss Ritchi might just be reading too much into the situation; there was absolutely nothing _nice_ about what he'd just done. It's not as though he was actually trying to be heroic or anything, he had merely acted impulsively; he couldn't help it. Of _course_ he would step in to shoo those moronic brainbots away; he wasn't going to just stand around and watch them clamp their sharp jaws into her lovely, porcelain skin… it would have been a travesty to mar perfection like that.

Allowing his face to assume a mask of indifference, he simply responded with a shrug, "It's nothing."

"No, it's not nothing; it really does mean a lot. Thank you."

Megamind swallowed hard as he looked into the luminous blue eyes that were currently gazing at him with complete sincerity. Hmmm, what if he just went ahead and let everything slide for the afternoon, and simply sat down to enjoy the company of the most wonderful woman in the city? How bad could that possibly be?

_Uh_… _NO!_ What on earth was wrong with him? Allowing something like that would be _terrible_; these were dangerous thoughts he was entertaining, and he could hear the warning bells going off in his head as his plan drifted closer and closer to being snuffed out like a candle's flame. He had his pride to consider after all, and his image of pure evil that he had to defend at all costs. If he wasn't careful he was going to end up giving his victim the false idea that he had a soft side, and Megamind couldn't think of anything worse than permitting her to think that he'd gone soft.

"Yes well, whatever." Megamind responded uncomfortably and then cleared his throat as he turned away to avoid eye contact with her… those baby blue eyes that at times seemed to be able to look alarmingly deep into his black heart, deeper than any other eyes ever had…

"It's really not a big deal… " he continued on quickly as he scanned the room for something he could find that might draw her attention away from his increasingly awkward response to her gratitude. As he desperately looked for _anything _he could use as a diversion, the service-bot that had filled their wine glasses earlier lazily floated by, the nearly full bottle still grasped in its pincer.

"Ah! There we are!" he blurted out with a good deal more excitement than was actually warranted for the situation. "I think I could use a refill; what about you Miss Ritchi?"

Roxanne snorted a laugh, and with a roll of her eyes she said, "Doesn't it seem a bit ridiculous for you to keep calling me Miss Ritchi like that? It's so _formal_… ugh, I can't stand that! Look, why don't you just call me Roxanne for now?"

Megamind's attention was immediately snatched up by her request, and he turned to look at her with a rather perplexed expression.

"Really?"

"Sure. Why not? If I'm going to be eating here with you guys I don't want to feel like I'm in the middle of a business meeting the whole time… just call me Roxanne. You can go back to calling me Miss Ritchi later on… after dinner, when you've got me back in your _clutches_." she responded with a teasing grin, finishing off with a show of drama in mimicry of her villainous host.

Then moving over to the chair she had previously refused, she pulled it out and sat down, saying, "And yeah, I think I'll have a refill. Haven't had much of a chance to get through the first glass yet, but I could use a top-off."

Megamind watched her as she gracefully sank into her seat with a sense of astonishment, and stood for a moment gaping at the sight of the ravishing woman sitting _willingly_ at his table. What shocked him the most about this situation wasn't the sudden change of heart she seemed to be having, or that she was joining him with an actual smile on her face, but that seeing her sitting in that velvety cushioned chair seemed so incredibly natural; like she belonged there…

"Uh, hey… you awake over there?"

"Oh, yes. Miss Ritchi… I mean _Roxanne_… needs a refill. She's our guest so take care of her first." he said distractedly to the service-bot that hovered beside him, patiently awaiting its orders, and then he turned away again to prevent her from seeing the distressed look that was settling over his face.

_What's wrong with me? Ugh, I need to get my head back in the game here or I'm going to end up botching this whole thing. Remember, payback… she called me predictable! And then she TRICKED me! She has this coming, so get with it genius!_

Looking up at the busy pack of brainbots as they continued to tussle with one another on the other side of the dining room, Megamind's eyes rested on the bot he had grabbed hold of in the heat of their much deserved scolding.

"Pssst… hey… come here… " he hissed quietly, giving his oversized head a jerk in his direction, as if to say "_get over here"_. The attention of the active little creature was immediately piqued by Megamind's secretive summons, and it instantly left its brothers behind, bounding forward through the air to its master like a mechanical golden retriever.

The Master of All Secret Schemes shot a quick glance back at his guest to be certain she wasn't watching… no, her attention seemed to be centered on something going on at the other end of the room that he couldn't quite see.

When he was certain that the coast was clear, he turned back to his pet and whispered, "You know, Miss Ritchi is my guest today, but being in the living quarters of the Lair is all so new to her… and to be honest, she's a bit nervous. I mean, just _look_ at her… she's so nervous she doesn't know quite what to do with herself!"

Megamind turned inconspicuously to look back at the reporter out of the corner of his eye, and as he did, his pet peeked around him sneakily, its eyestalk craning past his elbow as it squinted its glowing red orb at the typically stalwart woman who was now apparently a nervous wreck.

Hmmm, she didn't _look_ very nervous. She was still seated in her velvety chair, completely preoccupied by some activity behind a curtain near the entrance to Daddy's dining room, smiling and appearing to be quite relaxed and unconcerned at the moment by the events of the day. But then again, it really didn't know much about the emotions of humans; women in particular, who were supposed to be very complicated and mysterious individuals. It was only a brainbot after all, and a brainbot's sole purpose was to help Daddy with anything he that he might need, and to listen to every word he said… and Daddy _did_ just say that Miss Ritchi was nervous, so the metal creature supposed it _must_ be true.

The two conspirators turned to look away from the reporter, facing one another again as the red mechanical eye of the bot met the green eyes of its creator with a sense of giddy anticipation. The cyborg had a feeling that something amazing was about to happen, it could tell by that crafty look in its master's eyes. Oh yes, without a doubt, Daddy was about to ask it to help him with something special; maybe something top secret that none of the other bots knew about… maybe something that even _Pinky_ didn't know about yet!

"It's a shame for Miss Ritchi to feel so _anxious_ on her first visit to Daddy's living quarters; I _do_ want her to feel welcome, after all. So I had the most amazing idea; I was wondering if you'd like to help me with something… a secret mission of sorts. What do you think; are you up for it?"

Determined to make Daddy proud after the trouble it had participated in earlier, the eager little brainbot gave an excited bowg in answer to its master's question… of _course_ it was up to the task! Being given a secret mission by Daddy himself was an absolute dream job for any bot; there was no _way_ it was about to miss out on a chance like this!

"Good boy, I _knew_ I could count on you! Now, what Miss Ritchi really needs to feel at home is lots, and _LOTS_ of attention. I know that when we're in the middle of a plan she seems a little grouchy, but she actually loves to play; it's one of her favorite things to do. So, what I want you to do is stick with her tonight as much as possible and show her your favorite games… _all_ _of them_. Just go and have _fun_ with it! Can you do that?"

Oh gosh, the little bot could hardly believe its auditory sensors! This wasn't just a dream job; it was the _MOTHER_ of all dream jobs!

"_Bowg, bowg_!" responded the metallic creation, bobbing in the air with nearly uncontrolled exuberance.

"Ah, there's a good little cyborg! Alright, now stay close to her and play, play, play! But remember… absolutely _no biting_."

The eager little bot stiffened at his request like a soldier standing at attention, and giving an affirmative bowg in salute, it burst forward to carry out its special orders that no other bot in the whole Lair had been given the honor of receiving.

Maybe, just maybe, if it did a good enough job and made Daddy _really_ proud, he would give it a name instead of a boring old number designation like most of the other bots had; a real name, just like Pinky! Only Daddy's _favorite_ brainbots had real names… oh boy, no more Number 121 for this bot! Hmmm, maybe he would call it Sparky, or Chomp… or maybe even Ozzy, after Daddy and Minion's favorite Rock and Roll star! Oh, now that would be so cool!

Megamind watched his mechanical agent of recompense zip away out of the corner of his eye, and then turned with an evil smirk to gloat privately at this new twist in his subterfuge against the frustrating reporter. Now that he'd set this wheel in motion, he wouldn't even really have to _do_ much of anything at all aside from give a little encouragement here and there; he could just sit back and watch as the subtle hilarity of reh-vange unfolded satisfyingly before his eyes. And if he knew his brainbots, he was certain that the antics of Number 121 wouldn't _stop_ with 121; once the others caught a whiff of their brother having so much fun, they'd all want to get involved!

_Ah, it's perfect… _he thought to himself as he distractedly held out his wine glass to the hovering service-bot for a celebratory refill… _a plan of elegant design and flawless forethought; a gloriously cunning scheme that sustains itself and continues to grow on its own, and all I need to do is sit back and reap the pleasure of seeing the look on Roxanne's face! Oh, I AM a genius! This going to be…_

Just then, his musing was interrupted by a combination of unwelcome sounds that put an instant halt to his self-congratulation, and replaced it with a renewal of the awkward embarrassment that had him so on-edge earlier that afternoon. To his utter humiliation, the rich, round, pure tones of music began to ripple throughout the dining room, and combined with the beautiful but mortifying sound of Roxanne's laughter. _Oh… no…_

"You've got to be _kidding_ me! So this is what those three were up to? I've been trying to get a look at what they were carrying since they came in here, but during that whole mess with the brainbots I kinda lost track of them for a while, and then they went behind that curtain over there by the door and were doing something; apparently getting ready for this… I can't believe it!" Roxanne exclaimed with a round of shocked laughter.

"I never would have guessed in a _million years_ that you'd have your own personal orchestra in here to serenade you during dinner! Oh, man! And this…" she continued with a giggle and a motion of her hand to a colossal screen that had been unveiled on the dining room wall during Megamind's planning process with 121, and was currently playing a scene of an epic conflict between Metro Man and one of Megamind's favorite battle-bots, "What in the world_ is_ this? Some sort of play-by-play of Megamind's Greatest Hits or something?"

"There are only three bots there… a cello, a violin, and a harp _doesn't_ count as an orchestra!" he snapped indignantly.

The suddenly humbled villain stood with his arms crossed, and scowling darkly as he silently berated himself for having been so distracted by his planning process that he had forgotten to put a stop to the bots' embarrassing role in his Thanksgiving celebration. The "orchestra" that was currently "serenading" him, as his sarcastic guest so humiliatingly put it, was all Minion's idea… something ridiculously over the top that his friend thought would add a nice touch to the yearly celebration of his favorite holiday.

There was nothing really _wrong_ with it, but it had always seemed to be taking things a bit too far; a lot of needless fanfare that tended to grate on his nerves because it had always seemed to be something that would fit in at one of Wayne Scott's opulent parties better than it did at Evil Lair. Despite his annoyance at the sight of the trio of bots displaying their delightful musical talents, Megamind had stuffed down his irritation and quietly endured it every year for the sake of his friend, and thanked his lucky stars that no one had ever seen this incredibly _un-_evil part of his celebration. No one… until now.

The re-cap of the year's best evil schemes however, was without a doubt a tradition that he looked forward to every year with great gusto, but it was also a tradition that would have been best kept out of the limelight and secretly hidden away as long as Miss Ritchi was joining them. There were _far_ too many moments for his comfort in the video journal of his favorite plans that may appear incriminating; moments that might possibly give his impertinent guest the wrong idea…

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**What a place to break it off, right? I had to split it because the chapter was getting far too long, and this seemed to be the best place to divide. **

**And you'll be happy to know that yes, they do finally get to sit down to have that much anticipated feast in the next installment… guess you'll just have to come back to see how that goes over!**

**Hope to see you next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Back again, but j****ust a quick note before we move on... back in chapter 4, I promised I'd tell you where I got the idea for much of this story. Well, since I just remembered that, I'd better tell you right now before I forget again. All of you Mega-fans that are lucky enough to have The Art Of Megamind concept art book have seen this picture dozens of times. It's right in there at the top of page 72... Megs and Rox in a very posh dining room, being waited on by some very odd looking bots, with a gigantic screen in the background playing a scene of Mets waging war against a battlebot and being serenaded by a bot with a cello. Pretty much what I described in the story. That's *always* been a favorite picture of mine; it captured my imagination the first time I saw it and hasn't let go from then on. With all the activity going on in that dining room and the expressions on their faces, it really seems to have quite a story behind it... I'm so glad I had the opportunity to be able to come up with one of my own!**

**Thank you once again for coming back to read this very seasonal story even though the season is long past. You guys are amazing! :)**

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"All right, here we are!" a cheerful voice suddenly called out from the other side of the room. Megamind turned to see his henchfish, bearing a large covered platter that exuded the heavenly aroma of turkey. Puttering along in front of him was one of the service-bots, carrying a covered serving tray of its own; presumably the rolls that Minion had mentioned earlier.

"Sorry about the hold up; it always takes a little longer to carve up a turkey than I think it's going to. So, you two must be about to _starve_ by now, especially you Miss Ritchi!"

"Oh no… nothing to worry about, Minion. You just take your time, I'm fine!" she responded patiently, despite the fact that she _was_ beginning to think that she might just starve if dinner wasn't served in a hurry.

Megamind immediately dashed forward with a feeling of wild desperation that was currently being enhanced by that second glass of wine, and approached his sidekick to exclaim in a frantic whisper, "Minion, we can't have the camera-bots playing the video journal this time!"

"What do you mean? Why not? We can't have Thanksgiving without…" Minion interjected rather loudly.

"_Shhhhh!_" interrupted his master in exasperation. "Will you keep it _down_? I'm surprised I'd even have to tell you this, Minion! Did you suddenly _forget_ that we have a guest over? Do you happen to remember _who_ that guest is?"

Roxanne's attention had been drawn to their secretive conversation the instant Megamind shushed the fish's noisy response, and she watched them curiously as they continued to talk in hushed tones, her brows furrowing when she caught sight of Megamind momentarily glancing back in her direction. _What's he up to now?_

She leaned forward against the table, straining her ears in an attempt to tease out the gist of their whispered exchange, and as she did, she suddenly had the odd feeling of being watched. Turning to her left, she was surprised to see a single brainbot hovering near the ground a few feet away, its red eye staring at her intently. They regarded one another; Roxanne with a look of puzzled curiosity at what the creature might be doing, and the bot with an air of calculating patience, as though it was waiting for just the right time to engage in some nefarious deed… with a scheming expression that strangely reminded the reporter very much of its creator.

The two engaged in an uncomfortable staring contest as Roxanne tried to piece together what the weird creature might possibly be up to, but after a few moments, she gave up and turned away slowly, feeling somewhat reluctant to turn her back on the bit of floating hardware that hovered just behind her and continued to gape at her with its piercing, red eye. Maybe if she just ignored it, it would eventually get bored and decide to hover off somewhere else…

"So? What's the big deal?" Minion asked in response to his boss' whispered outburst, setting the tray down on the table and taking Roxanne's empty plate from a service–bot. As he busily began to arrange servings of the decadent feast on her plate, he continued on without even looking up from his task, "There's nothing wrong with it, and you look forward to it every year; you _love_ the journal, Sir! Oh come on… let's just let the bots go ahead and play it. Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without it, and I'm sure Miss Ritchi would love to watch. After all, she does have a starring role in it."

_Ugh, that's exactly the problem_ thought the blue schemer as he glanced back at his guest a second time. Oh drat! She had noticed their private, whispered conference and was leaning forward in her chair again, trying to catch a hint of what they were saying. Didn't she _ever_ stop prying into his business?

"What's with you lately anyway, you're so touchy! Why don't you just go sit down and I'll get your plate to you in a second. Stop worrying and try to enjoy yourself, geez!" Minion quipped, and then looking up at his mechanical helper, he passed over the laden plate, and said, "Okay, there you go little fella… you can bring this over to Miss Ritchi"

Megamind sighed resignedly. It seemed that nothing was going according to his plans; the initial kidnapping had gone from a date with impending doom for his abductee to a nice little dinner party, the grand plans he had for showing Roxanne how astoundingly unpredictable he was had been derailed by Minion's tender heart, and now the evil image that he had carefully constructed after all these years was systematically being stripped away brick by brick as a result of his own Thanksgiving celebration that no one else was _ever_ supposed to see. Was nothing sacred?

If he rushed around in a panic, demanding that the bots cease and desist all continued effort to provide the usual entertainment for his Thanksgiving dinner and shooing them out of the dining room, not only would it make him look rather ridiculous considering that Roxanne had already seen much of the embarrassing line-up, but it would also disappoint Minion. Although Megamind may not have been very good at expressing his gratitude to his best friend for all the effort he poured into the multitude of little things he did for him, he appreciated it immensely none the less, and he couldn't stand the thought of hurting his feelings.

No, it was best at this point to simply play it cool and bear it all in stride. Besides, there was still the hope that she wouldn't even really notice the video, especially if 121 did his job right… oh, who was he kidding? This was _Roxanne Ritchi_ he was talking about, she noticed everything! Well, even if she did notice it, he supposed things could be much worse. He was an e-vil genius, after all; maybe he could find some way of incorporating the source of his humiliation into his rapidly evolving scheme…

As Roxanne observed the dastardly duo's exchange with surprise, her robotic waiter approached with her heaping plate, presenting it to her on outstretched metal arms.

"Oh, thanks… " she said as she eagerly accepted the meal that she had been anticipating for what seemed like days, and placed it on the table in front of her.

Minion was right, he hadn't forgotten a single thing when he'd done the planning for this feast… savory turkey, bright, jewel-like cranberries, fluffy herbed stuffing, real mashed potatoes with rich gravy, and all the other delicious trimmings that make a Thanksgiving meal so special. The sight of the delectable assortment of foods and the heavenly smell that rose from her plate instantly made her mouth water.

"Minion, this looks amazing! I had no idea you could cook like this; you're probably a better cook than I am!"

"Oh, hehe! I don't think so…" Minion said sheepishly with an adorably humble, 'aw, shucks' sort of grin on his pudgy face. He looked down again at his task as he began to heap Megamind's plate, and Roxanne could have sworn she caught a glimpse of the aquatic creature's cheeks adding a shade or two of pink to his scales that she'd never seen before.

"No, really… it's true." she said with complete honesty. "You _can_ cook better than me. I've never even tried to do a spread like this… you wouldn't _want_ me to try it."

"Aw, well I don't know about that, but thanks Miss Ritchi. That really means a lot, especially coming from you!"

Megamind snickered at her admission as he took his place at the other end of the table, drawing a quick scowl from his guest.

"What? Is there a _problem_ with that?" she said, feeling her patience with him beginning to slip again.

"Oh no, it's just rather surprising to hear Little Miss Know-it-all actually admitting to something she doesn't know."

"Hey, I've got no problems with admitting it if there's something I don't know. You just think I'm a 'know it all', as you so _maturely_ put it, because I always end up one step ahead of you. You're just too easy for me to figure out."

Megamind's heavy brows lowered over his narrowed eyes, and he said, "Are you trying to say I'm predictable… _again_?"

"Come on, Sir; not during dinner. You have the _whole_ evening reserved for that evil plan so you two can hash out that predictability thing, but let's just enjoy ourselves for right now, okay?" Minion said in a calming tone, and then turning once again to the service-bot that waited patiently beside him, he held out his boss' plate and said, "All right, there ya go little guy. This one's for Daddy."

Roxanne stifled a giggle at the repeated sight of the notorious Megamind being gently scolded by his own henchman in such a maternal way. From her usual perspective in the midst of the two mischief maker's plans, it was obvious that the blue scoundrel was firmly in charge and running the show, but now, seeing them on their own turf, a rather different vision of the miscreants was presenting itself.

Her kidnapper was still clearly in charge, but in the confines of their own private living quarters she could see that Minion had quite a bit more pull with him than she had ever realized. The little fish was showing himself to have an amazingly nurturing side with his boss, a nurturing side that seemed to include the occasional mild rebuke. Shockingly, Megamind actually seemed to be taking the scolding quite well, and the infamous villain himself was displaying a surprising amount of care and thoughtfulness toward his aquatic companion.

Roxanne had always been fond of Minion of course, he was absolutely too cute for words, and the devotion he had to his boss that she was being given the opportunity to observe was endearing him to her even more. Megamind however… maybe it was only the effect of the wine relaxing her defenses, but as she watched their interaction with one another that was obviously based on a lifetime of deep friendship, and her kidnapper's care for his little friend's feelings, she had to admit to herself that even the blue bad boy was incredibly adorable in his own wicked, scheming, e-vil sort of way.

Making a decision to ignore Megamind's inflammatory question in an attempt to keep her promise to herself to steer the rest of the evening in a more positive direction, she huffed a sigh, and with a roll of her eyes and an amused shake of her head, she turned her attention to the much anticipated meal that waited temptingly on the table in front of her.

_Finally!_ She thought as she reached out for her fork with excitement, but just as she did, she noticed a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye. In a quick flash of shiny steel and bright electric blue, her fork was whisked away right out from under her hand as she began to grasp it. With a startled gasp, she turned to find the brainbot that had been eyeing her earlier bobbing in the air with the utensil clutched in its metal pincers, looking tense with anticipation, as though it were waiting for her to do something.

"Hey! Give that back!" she demanded with irritation, although she didn't attempt to make a move to retrieve her fork from its grasp. After that tense moment with the bots when they had first entered the room, she wasn't particularly looking forward to engaging in any kind of close contact with them.

When the mischievous creature showed no sign of returning what it had taken, she turned to Megamind with a perplexed expression and asked, "What's it doing?"

"Oh, you know how those brainbots are; they're just so full of energy! I believe it wants to play with you."

"Well I definitely _don't_ want to play with it. Make it give me back my fork."

"What? And disappoint it? Oh come on, _look_ at the poor little thing; it's _dying_ to play fetch with you! Just give it one good throw so it can get this out of its system, and then I'm sure it will leave you alone."

Roxanne narrowed her eyes at him and then turned uncertainly to look at the cyborg that continued to hover eagerly a few feet away from her. Glancing back at her host, she asked dubiously, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely!"

She watched the bot for another minute; it really did look as though it was ready to play. Maybe he was right; if she just threw the fork for it once, it might just go away and leave her alone so she could get on with the business of eating that enticingly mouth-watering feast that was so close to her, and yet at the moment seemed so far away.

With a resigned sigh, she responded "Fine. What do I do?"

Megamind chuckled, a chuckle that was tinged ever so slightly with an evil intonation, and called out, "All right 121, drop it!"

The instant its master gave his command, the bot dropped the fork on the floor at Roxanne's feet and moved back to allow her enough room to pick it up and give it a good toss.

_I can't believe I'm about to play fetch with one of Megamind's brainbots_ thought the reporter as she bent down to pick up the object that her captor's pet seemed to have decided to lay claim on as its new toy. Standing up and giving a final glance at the blue villain, she huffed in irritation and then gave it a half-hearted fling to the other end of the table.

The little bot dashed away in an instant and swooped down to pick up the fork with exuberance, and swung itself around to float back to her, proudly displaying its prize.

Roxanne watched as it continued to hover expectantly next to her, the utensil held tightly between its metal jaws this time and showing absolutely no sign of returning the necessary item and moving on, as Megamind had assured her it would.

"It still won't give it back, and I'll be _damned_ if I'm going to reach out there and put my hands next to that bear trap with a consciousness to take it away!"

"Well that's because you didn't throw it hard enough. Try it again! I _know_ you can throw harder than that; I've had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of some of your throws… just imagine you're _incredibly_ irritated, so you're throwing it at _me_."

"Ha! Imagine I'm incredibly irritated with you, huh? Well, I won't have to try very hard to do that…"

When the bot dropped the fork in front of her for the second time with an eager bowg, she picked it up and winged it as far as she could across the vastness of the dining room. The instant the utensil left her hand, the cyborg bolted away with a shocking burst of speed and snatched it impressively right out of mid-air.

Rather than returning it to her immediately, Number 121 dashed about the room madly with its prize, as though in celebration of the epic catch it had just made. As it did so, the attention of the other bots was instantly piqued by the capering of their brother. Each one of the assembly froze in their place as they jealously watched the frolicking of the lucky bot, and they began to wonder why they hadn't been able to get in on the action. Now, that didn't seem quite fair; maybe it was time they step in and do something about that…

"Okay, you can bring it back now…" Roxanne called out with frustration to the little metal thief as it continued to swoop this way and that with her flatware. Glancing at Megamind to ask him what in the world she was supposed to do to convince the out of control brainbot to listen to her, her agitation was instantly magnified when she saw the smug grin that he wore as he sat back to watch the proceedings, and leisurely enjoying his dinner without a care in the world.

"Hey! A little help here…" she snapped angrily at him, but a moment later she turned in startled shock as the rest of the bots that had been playing at the other end of the room converged on Number 121 over the dining table and beginning an all-out, throw down tug of war for control over the coveted fork.

"No! Bad bots! Go away and leave Miss Ritchi alone _right now_ before I toss you all out of here on your domes!" Minion exclaimed as he rushed forward with his arms waving, sending the passel of obnoxious bots scattering. When the bowging knot of clashing metal dispersed back to the corners of the room, Minion turned to the culprit behind the momentary riot, and demanded as he pointed across the table to the reporter, "Now you give that back to her this instant!"

"Oh Minion, it's just having a little fun; no harm done! Let the little fellow play for goodness sake!" Megamind interjected with an amused tone.

"No Sir; that's just plain _rude_." Minion responded, slightly aghast at his boss' lack of decorum. Then turning back to Roxanne apologetically, he said, "Miss Ritchi, I'm really sorry about that; I just don't know what's gotten into them today!"

"Oh, it's okay Minion. No problem… as long as they don't do it again." answered the brunette as she suspiciously eyed the brainbot that hovered with her fork still in its pincer, a little too close for comfort.

"Drop it!" barked the fish after a few more moments of watching the brainbot clutch at the item covetously.

With a startled jump, the metal creature let go of the item and dashed away to hide behind her chair. Minion seemed to be very upset about its attempt to play with the moody reporter, but 121 _did_ notice the proud look on Daddy's face as it ducked behind her. Pleased with itself for making its creator so happy, the little cyborg hovered patiently, watching and biding its time for just the right moment to play with Miss Ritchi again…

When her fork hit the table with a clatter, Roxanne picked it up and looked cautiously around the room, expecting a sneak attack to assail her from above at any moment. As soon as she was certain that the coast was clear, she turned to the fish and said, "Uh… you know, I hate to be nit-picky, but I do _not_ want to use this fork after that thing was throwing it around and had it in its mouth like that. Can I get a new one?"

"Oh, of course; no problem at all! _Number 46_!" Minion called out, and was answered by the immediate response of one of the spherical service-bots as it hovered up to him and waited expectantly for its orders.

"Go get Miss Ritchi a new fork, please."

The instant he gave the command, the bot sped away to retrieve the called upon item.

"Thanks Minion, I really appreciate that; everything you did there." And then shooting a quick glare at Megamind, she continued, "At least _someone_ around here was willing to stick their neck out to help me out a little."

"Oh, no worries! Happy to help! You know Sir, I really think we might need to write up a new program to teach them about having better manners. It's bad enough when they act this way with us, but it's really terrible that they're behaving so badly in front of our guest. I thought you'd broken them of that fork snatching habit; this is the first I've seen of it in a really long time!"

Megamind waved his hand nonchalantly, and said with a grin, "Just a momentary relapse. It's not a big deal."

"Well, you thought it was a big deal when they were doing it to _you_… I'd just hate to see this happening again the next time we have Miss Ritchi over like this…"

"Wait a minute; you don't think we're going to be having her over here as our guest on a regular basis now, do you? This is _E-vil Lair!_ We don't… have… guests!"

"We do right now."

"This is just a fluke… _don't_ get comfortable with the idea of it happening again."

When Roxanne heard his adamant insistence that there would be no future social visits to the Lair for her, she was surprised at the sinking feeling that momentarily assailed her. What did she have to be disappointed about? Of course she knew there wouldn't be a _"next time"_, and why in the world would she ever hope that there would be? Dismissing the ridiculous feeling as another signal that the wine was affecting her a little more than it should be, she made a mental note to refuse a second refill when the service-bot came around again.

Just as she was beginning to wonder if her mechanical server had gotten distracted somehow in the process of finding her a new fork, it suddenly burst through the door and approached her at top speed. Laying the fork carefully on the table next to her, it turned and floated away to wait patiently until its assistance was needed again.

"Oh good, thank you!" she said, looking at the bot and then casting a grateful glance at Minion…. and another quick glare at Megamind as he sat complacently watching her and savoring his dinner with an infuriating grin at the other end of the table.

With her new fork in hand, and at last finding a moment of peace and quiet with no villains attempting to pick a fresh argument with her or brainbots attempting to steal her silverware, the hungry reporter was finally ready to take the first bite of the meal she'd been waiting for, and thought she'd _never_ get to enjoy.

It… was… _perfect._

"Oh my gosh Minion, this is incredible! I take back what I said earlier; you're not just a better cook than me, you're _infinitely_ better than me!" she gushed as she chewed delightedly. "You know, I don't think I've ever had stuffing this good… not even at Wayne's place, and they always have their food catered in by the best chef in the city."

"_Really?"_ Minion asked excitedly as he joined them at the table with a full plate of his own.

"Oh, yeah… this is fantastic! And I'm sure everything else you whip up is just as good." she answered sincerely, and then casting a look of undisguised admiration at her blue host, she said, "Hey, you're a pretty lucky guy to be getting fed like this on a regular basis. What I wouldn't give to be spoiled like _this_ every day!"

Without really realizing what he was doing, Megamind had been absent mindedly watching her from the moment she had begun to eat; the way the fork slid from between her lips and the tantalizing way her mouth moved when she chewed her food… when she turned to address him, he automatically thought with a dreamy look in his eyes, _What I wouldn't give to be ABLE to spoil you like this every day…_

_WHOAAA, where'd that come from? Knock it off… get your head back in the game! Villains do NOT spoil their victims… no matter how cute they look sitting here, eating with me at my table…_

He blinked and sat up straighter in his seat, looking to his henchman and his guest as though he was waking up from a dream, and said, "Uh, yes… you're right. There's no better cook in the city; Minion here outdoes himself every time!"

"Well thank you, Sir!" Minion beamed, clearly unused to the glowing compliment coming from his friend, who was often so preoccupied with the business of being evil, he would forget to offer the fish his appreciation. It really _was_ nice having Miss Ritchi there to eat with them, she seemed to be a good influence on his boss; he'd just have to see what he could do about convincing Megamind to invite her again some other time… hopefully sometime soon.

"So, Minion… I've got to say, there's something I've always been kind of curious about. How in the world do you eat with that big bowl-thing over you like that?"

"Oh! Hehehe! Well, you're about to see that for yourself right up close… there's a hatch, it opens up!" he responded happily as he situated his plate in front of him and prepared to dig in.

"And I must remind you… again… that everything you're seeing is _off the record_… you weren't allowed to join us so you could offer up an expose' of all the mysterious secrets of E-vil Lair on the six o'clock news." Megamind remarked sternly, pointing his fork at her as he gave her a warning look.

"Oh, of course, right… because I'm sure every mind in Metro City is _dying_ to know just where Minion keeps the hatch that he uses when he eats, they'll all be glued to their TV's. It'll be the hot topic of conversation at the water cooler in every office around the city for the next month."

Megamind's warning look sank into an icy glower as he shook his head at her with irritation. _Ugh, she's so SNARKY!_ Just as he opened his mouth to return her acerbic comeback with one of his own, he was interrupted by a snicker that emanated from the other side of the table.

Turning to his friend with a shocked and somewhat horrified expression, the offended blue menace asked, "Do you find something amusing about our guest's sarcastic comment, _Min-ion_?"

Minion instantly attempted to stifle the giggles and rather unsuccessfully tried to wipe the amused smile from his face.

"Oh… uh, of course not Sir! No, not at all. Uh-uh. No… way. Miss Ritchi, that wasn't funny, not one little bit!"

Roxanne turned to look across the table at the fish when he voiced his half-hearted admonishment, but when their eyes met, they both dissolved into a quiet burst of giggles, which they both tried, and failed to silence. Megamind's icy glare suddenly developed into a withering stare as he focused more intently on his fishy henchman, his eyes narrowing further as his dark brows dropped dangerously over his flashing green eyes and his lips pinching in a furious scowl.

When Minion noticed his boss' threatening look, he instantly clammed up. With a cleansing sigh to try and rid himself of the last vestiges of the urge to laugh it his master's expense, he nervously stammered out in an attempt to change the subject, "Um… _a-hem_… yeah… Uh… Oh! Will you look at that! I forgot my fish flakes! What was I thinking? Hehe! So busy taking care of everyone else that I forget about myself! I'll just… uh… go grab them."

"Fish flakes? You mean that stuff they sell at the pet store; you _eat_ that? I thought you were eating the same thing we are…" Roxanne asked, somewhat confused.

"Oh yeah, I am… but they're great sprinkled over the top of _everything_. Some people use salt and pepper; I use fish flakes!" Minion responded, glancing back at her as he rose from the table. When their eyes met again, the urge to snicker immediately returned, and Minion spun around and made for the door as quickly as he could to prevent himself from giving in to the temptation in front of his infuriated friend.

Wow, having Miss Ritchi there to join them was _so_ much fun! Why hadn't he thought of this sooner? _Oh yeah, without a doubt…_ the happy little fish thought as he hurried out of the room with another quiet giggle… _I'm just going to have to pull out all the stops to convince Megamind to let her come over here like this again!_

"Now don't you two start fighting again while I'm gone!" he called behind him as he disappeared from sight.

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**Please review? **

**P****lease come back to see how this story ends, and thank you once again for sticking with me! I appreciate all of you so much! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**This is another long chapter, but it's a busy one so it should move right along for you. Just FYI, I've uploaded this without waiting for my beta to send it back to me with a list of corrections I may need to make, so there are likely a few typos mixed in here and there… let's just pretend you didn't see those. **_**Move along people; nothing to see here! ;)**_

**Thanks to all of you for coming back yet again to follow this very **_**late**_** holiday adventure!**

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When Minion left the room, the pair of diners were once again wrapped in an uncomfortable silence. The only sound in the room was the electronic whir of the brainbots as they zipped about or approached the table to hover over them curiously, and the rippling sounds of the stringed instruments as the odd looking service-bots continued to perform their musical accompaniment.

Rather than focusing on the awkward wall that seemed to have sprung up between them again, Roxanne shook her head at her host's temperamental intolerance to being teased, and looked up with a sigh and a final snicker at the enormous screen that had continued playing re-runs of the villain's favorite schemes throughout the course of their meal. She had almost forgotten about that in the midst of playing fetch with that weird little brainbot… _I wonder where that thing went, anyway…_

As she watched the action on the screen unfold, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the memory of each one of the schemes that she had been given the "_honor_" of participating in. He had a little bit of everything rolled up in that footage; clips of Metro Man squaring off with a multitude of giant battle bots, various flying machines equipped with a dizzying array of evil weaponry, and a clip or two of that stealthy battalion of miniature bots that had been intended to capture the poor Mayor and the rest of the city's key officials, and force them to do the vile bidding of the Villain In Black.

He'd even included several shots of his astounding assortment of gigantic lasers that were created with the maniacal intent of doing everything from controlling the thoughts of the "mindless drones of Metrocity", to turning the mechanical items that the citizens used every day into an e-vil army used to enslave them and bend them to his wicked will.

As she watched the endless stream of evil plans being replayed, Roxanne began to notice two separate themes. The first one, which she found completely predictable, was the ridiculous amount of times the camera-bots had focused on Megamind in his most complimentary and awe-inspiring moments; capturing the villain with his most swaggeringly confident grin at the instant the evil genius was certain he was about to win that round in the struggle of good versus evil… and conveniently cutting way just before he realized that, once again, victory just wasn't meant to be.

The second and more surprising theme was the multitude of shots that had been included of _her_. Here was a shot of Roxanne watching intently as the two combatants waged an epic battle before her eyes, and there was a frame of her gazing with obvious boredom in the direction of the blue menace as he began another evil monologue that was intended to inspire awe in the masses that watched from the sidelines. All of the footage that had been included of her seemed to capture her at her best with a wide variety of expressions, ranging from amusement, to irritation, to a rare moment of worry, and even included quite a few sarcastically crooked grins.

Several of the shots were incredibly close up; so close, even the freckles that dusted her cheeks and nose were plainly visible, and others were at a greater distance, capturing her completely. She noticed that each time a frame of her appeared on the screen, it seemed to be artfully centered and lingered over by the camera-bot that had taken the shot, almost as though she was being given a place of honor among all the other things that had been included in the video feed. In fact, as the video journal played on, it seemed to become less and less of a re-cap of Megamind's Greatest Hits, and more of a glowing Tribute to Roxanne Ritchi.

As she watched, her eyes began to grow wide and her mouth hung agape with surprise; her hand suddenly stopping to hover in mid-air with the laden fork she held forgotten in the awkward astonishment of what she was seeing. After a few more moments of watching as the video feed played scene after scene of _her_, captured in the most lovely cinematography she'd ever seen and intermixed with the occasional token shot of an evil invention here or there for good measure, she slowly turned to look at her host with a stunned and questioning expression.

When she looked at him, she no longer saw the swaggeringly egotistical villain that had been hounding her with argument after argument and driving her nuts throughout the entirety of their unconventional holiday dinner together, she saw a very awkward looking blue man in black leather, slouching back in his chair and biting his lip in embarrassment. When their eyes met, he instantly sat up as straight as an arrow, and the nervous lip-bite was immediately replaced with an attempt at a smile, but the smile he offered seemed to be more along the lines of a humiliated grimace mixed with a cringe as he shrugged his shoulders and gave a nervous chuckle.

"Uh… Megamind… "

"You know, those camera-bots come up with the montage on their own every year; they just pick scenes at random from the footage they've taken, so I _never_ know what they're going to do from one year to the next!" he broke in rapidly with an anxious lilt to his voice.

The astute reporter narrowed her eyes at him and then glanced back at the screen again… yep, there was another shot of her tied to one of his contraptions. Even with all the effort the station put into making their top reporter look beautiful for the cameras, they had never been able to make her look as good as she did right now in Megamind's video journal.

An odd mix of emotions suddenly overtook her; not the least of which was a massive amount of confusion. She realized that she probably should have felt annoyed and rather offended that he was using her image as part of his evening entertainment, but he was using it in such an honorable and complimentary way, she was shocked to find that she didn't feel that way at all. In fact, she actually felt a tiny spark of pride beginning to grow in her chest… pride, mixed with a sneaky dose of sincere flattery that Megamind, the infamously handsome villain of the city she called home, might just have taken the time to notice her as _more_ than just his victim.

_No, wait… he said the camera-bots picked out the footage themselves. But that doesn't make ANY sense; he's such a micro-manager about everything, there's no way he'd let those things just pick what they want and surprise him. And even if they did, why would they concentrate on me so much in that video unless he had at least a bit of a hand in it to tell them what to do… _

"So, the camera-bots did _all_ this…" she said softly as she looked at him again, her brows wrinkling as she mentally began to tie the loose ends of the story he was trying to feed her together. For some reason, it suddenly meant a _great deal_ to her to know whether or not Megamind had been a part of choosing the line-up that she was seeing. "...and you had absolutely nothing to do with it; you didn't have a _clue_ what you were going to see when they played this for you today…"

"Not a one…" he answered resolutely. And he was almost telling the truth… granted, he _had_ instructed the camera-bots to pick out plenty of lovely shots of Roxanne as a sort of grand finale for his video journal; saving the best for last just as he did every year, but he didn't know exactly which pictures they were going to choose….

"But that doesn't make sense, Megamind. Why would they just randomly pick out all of _this…_" she said as she absentmindedly pointed at the screen with the hand that still held her potato-laden fork, "unless they'd been prompted somehow. The only thing that makes sense at all is that you said something to them at one point or another. And if you didn't know what was going to be on this video, why were you so worked up about it earlier? I saw how nervous you were when Minion brought it up. And look at you, you're kind of a nervous wreck right now…"

Oh… god. She had him pegged. And he knew without a doubt that he was looking as guilty as sin as he sat there staring at her with wide and unblinking eyes, opening and closing his mouth soundlessly as he tried unsuccessfully to come up with a legitimate excuse for what had turned out to be a glowing tribute to the beautiful woman that he kidnapped twice a week. Those bots had really gone unexpectedly overboard this time around… not that he was complaining of course, they had done a _splendid_ job! There were some absolutely stunning shots of her in that montage, and any other time he would have been delighted to gaze with dreamy-eyed affection at the woman pictured on his screen. But why did they have to choose _this_ year to do it; the _one_ year she showed up to join him for his Holiday feast?

Deciding with frustration that he'd done enough stammering like a guilty schoolboy, the humiliated villain attempted to shore up his emotions, and snapped, "I most certainly am not! Nervous wreck? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! And I'll have you know I did not tell those bots to pick those shots… they did that all on their own!"

"But you did specifically tell them to pick shots of _me_… why else would they have done that? Maybe not those particular ones, but…"

As she spoke, she was suddenly interrupted when her fork was once again whisked away from her grasp by the playfully annoying Number 121, who had seen her holding out it out distractedly from behind her chair and taken it as the perfect opportunity to begin another round of fetch.

"Hey!" she snapped as she wiped the potatoes that had been smeared across her hand on her napkin. She immediately began kicking herself for not paying better attention; she had grown so intent on coercing him to admit that he'd had a major hand in that video reel, that she had completely lost track of everything else that was going on around her. Video journal, tussling brainbots, music being played for their enjoyment; none of it meant a thing in comparison to satisfying that spark of hopeful curiosity that was beginning to burn in her so brightly.

The instant the bot had snatched her utensil from her, Megamind felt a surge of relief at the perfectly timed distraction, and without thinking he exuberantly blurted out, "Good boy!"

Roxanne's head snapped in his direction when she realized what he had just said. "WHAT? _Good_ boy?"

_Oooh, bad move, genius…_ "Oh, uh… yes! All I meant was that I think it's wonderful that it's being so playful with you; the brainbots need a good deal more socializing to help break them of some of their more nasty habits. You know, Number 121 seems to have taken quite a shine to you, Roxanne."

Suddenly, all the bits and pieces of each of the mishaps with the brainbots, and Megamind's sneaky glances and mischievous smirks that she had caught a glimpse of so many times that day came together in her mind with a cymbal crash. The realization that he was the driving force behind it all, combined with her frustration at feeling her strangely compelling desire to hear him admit that he had not only known about the flattering videos of her, but that he had helped plan it that way because he may just have a spark of affection for her down deep confused her enough to push her temper over the edge.

Narrowing her eyes to glare at him fiercely, she spat out, "Oh, _shut up_! Give me a break, you expect me to fall for that innocent act? You were behind this the whole time, weren't you? All of it; from the second your little _pets_ came rushing into the dining room and went after me like that!"

"No, I wasn't! I had nothing to do with _that_; I was the one who stepped in to chase them off that time, remember?" he responded with his hands held in front of him placatingly. Why in the world did he suddenly feel like such a jerk for the way he'd been treating her since the whole mess had started earlier that afternoon?

Instead of listening to his protest, she continued to run through the events of the day in her mind, her anger at him growing by the second. "Oh right. Okay, you were just doing your good deed for the day, huh? Well guess what Megamind; I don't believe a _single_ word you have to say!"

Suddenly, the image of his whispery conferences with Minion came rushing back to her mind, and she asked with a slightly hurt tone to her voice, "What about Minion, was he part of this too?" But a moment later she thought better of her suspicion. "No, he wouldn't have done this. This is _completely_ something you would do! And all this just because… what? I called you predictable? Oh, and I was supposedly snooping around, right? God, you're so _stubborn_! And to think I actually tried so hard to be _nice_ to you today!"

"Okay Roxanne, just hold on now…"

"No! I don't want to hear it! And stop calling me Roxanne, it's _Miss Ritchi _from here on out! You know what? Just get me out of here, take me home right now!"

Now Megamind was becoming frustrated; she was stubbornly refusing to listen to a word he said. "No, that wasn't the deal! We have a plan in place, and you agreed…"

"_Screw the plan! _I'm going home!" she responded as she finished wiping her hands and temperamentally threw the napkin on the table. Then with a final withering look at her abductor, she turned to storm out of the dining room.

"Roxanne, stop! You're not leaving until we finish that plan, and you can't just go wandering around the Lair on your own like that!" he shot at her with a good deal more irritation in his voice than he intended. He couldn't decide whether it was the way she was trying to get out of their agreed upon plan, or the fact that she was so angry with him at the moment that bothered him more. He was surprised to discover how much it stung to see her temper flare at him like this, especially after hearing her admit that she had actually been trying to be nice to him.

"Watch me!" she quipped angrily with her back to him as she began to step toward the door.

Throughout their heated exchange, 121 had been hovering nearby with Roxanne's stolen fork grasped tightly, and watching the proceedings. Hmmm, she sure didn't look like she was enjoying the games that the mischievous bot was trying to play with her. In fact, she looked pretty darn grouchy right now, and the metal creature was starting to feel just a little unsure about trying to play with her again. But, Daddy _did_ say that playing was one of her favorite things to do; maybe it was just playing with the fork that she didn't like. The little bot decided to wait and watch a while longer; perhaps the right opportunity would present itself so it could try one more time…

"Wait! No, you _CAN'T_ leave." Megamind demanded.

Roxanne froze in her tracks and slowly spun around to face him with an expression that made Megamind swallow hard. He'd seen her angry plenty of times, but very rarely had he seen her _this_ upset.

"Why? Why don't you want me to leave, Megamind? So you can strap me down to that chair and move on to your stupid plan? Is that what I have to look forward to; just one more thing to ruin my holiday? Well guess what… I don't think you need to do anything else, because you've already done a _bang-up_ job of ruining it for me the way things are right now!"

The blue villain stood speechlessly for a moment, his green eyes a picture of uncertainty. He wasn't relishing the strange feeling of guilt that was currently nipping at his heels, and he wished he could just flip a switch and make it disappear. She had all of this coming to her, right? She'd brought it on herself! What did he have to feel bad about… and what was he doing feeling guilty to begin with? He was evil for crying out loud; villains _don't_ feel guilty.

Deciding to shove that glimmer of remorse back into the depths of his black heart, the scoundrel scowled darkly at her, and as he began to step closer, he said menacingly, "You've made your choice Miss Ritchi; this snippy attitude of yours has just cost you your status as my guest and the luxury of my mercy. You want to leave so badly? Well, that's just fine with me. But you're leaving on _my_ terms, not yours… and my terms are a one way ticket to that chair and all the terrors that lie in wait for you there."

When the reporter saw the villain stepping toward her with the certainty of a trip to the chair in his eyes, she glared at him venomously and said, "Don't you _dare_ come any closer. You'd better stop right there where you are!"

"Or what, my snoopy little correspondent? What exactly are you going to do to stop me?" he purred wickedly as he slipped fully back into his evil persona. _I'm done letting a silly soft spot for that infuriating woman get the better of me…_

"I'm not kidding! Don't you even _think_ about taking another step!" she warned him as she rushed back to the table. Without looking down at what she as doing so as to keep her eyes on her pursuer, she grappled for anything she could reach that she could hurl at him if he refused to stop in his tracks. Embarrassingly, the first thing her hand closed on was the roll that Minion had so generously given her to accompany her meal.

Intending at first to reject the roll for a much heavier and more intimidating object, she realized as she watched him move closer with that nefarious expression on his face that there simply wasn't time. Winding her arm back and snapping it forward with all the form and strength of her best pitch back in her softball days, the flakey baked item shot forward and pegged the surprised villain right in the center of the lightning bolt that adorned the front of his suit.

The instant the roll propelled through the air, Number 121's red eye perked up and watched the situation with intensity… maybe Miss Ritchi was finally in the mood to play! The excited brainbot waited, as tense and ready as a coiled spring to jump into the action if the opportunity presented itself.

"What the…" Megamind quipped with wide-eyed shock as he stopped in his tracks and looked down to watch the baked good roll across the floor. Then looking up at her again, his emerald eyes narrowed, he said, "So that's how it's going to be, is it? Yeah? Well, I can play along too!"

Reaching out to the table to grab a roll of his own, the scoundrel sent it flying and watched with satisfaction as it hit his victim square on the shoulder. "Ha! You're going to have to do a _lot_ better than that if you want to get out of this plan tonight, _Miss Ritchi_!"

Roxanne gasped when the crusty bun bounced off her shoulder and hit the floor with a quiet thump. _I can't BELIEVE he just did that! _

"You _RAT_!" she shot at him fiercely, and reached blindly again for another side dish that she could catapult in his direction. This time her hand closed over something soft and somewhat squishy, but she didn't care; at this point, _everything_ within reach was fair game as ammunition to chuck at that big blue head.

Within seconds after a gravy soaked piece of turkey was snatched off her plate, it was sailing through the air like a missile at its target; any part of the wicked alien's anatomy that it could make contact with before he was able to veer out of the way, preferably as close to his face as possible. Her aim proved to be incredibly accurate; despite his quick reflexes as he attempted to dodge, the greasy piece of turkey struck him with a slap on the side of his neck, sticking for a moment and then tumbling to the floor with a plop.

When Roxanne heard the smacking of the squashy piece of meat as it hit his skin, and watched it tumble floppily end over end to the floor, it struck her as hilariously funny. She was instantly hit with the sudden and uncontrollable urge to laugh, and she clapped her hands over her mouth just as a giggling snort escaped her.

Megamind froze in mid-step, and slowly reached up to wipe the greasy smear from his neck. He glanced down for a moment to examine the generous blob of gravy that glistened on his fingers, and then looked back up at her again slowly, a giddy new light glimmering in his narrowed eyes.

"Oh, now that was a mistake. You don't think I'm going to let you get away with that, do you? It's… _WAR_…"

_Oooh, maybe that one was a bit too far…_ "Hold on Megamind... just stop a minute…" she rambled, still sporting a mirthful smile at the memory of the turkey sticking momentarily to his blue skin. Putting her hands up in front of her with a calming gesture, she continued, "This doesn't need to get out of control; we can just…" But her level-headed words were interrupted by the warm splat of mashed potatoes as it spattered against her thigh.

"Ugh, _that's_ it!" she raged, and grabbing a fistful of the glorious feast that Minion had agonized over for hours, and that she had spent so much of her afternoon anticipating, she lobbed it at him with all the force she could muster.

The moment the previously grouchy reporter threw that handful of… whatever it was; there was such a varied combination of foods in that grab, the little bot really couldn't tell… and hurled it at Daddy, Number 121 knew its time had come. Miss Ritchi was _finally_ in a better mood and was ready to _play_! And best of all, Daddy was joining in too!

Instantly dropping the fork on the floor, the metallic creation rushed forward to the table and swooped down to pick up a pincerful of some squashy entrée or another, and propelled it with industrial strength at the brunette, who was now ducked down behind her chair in an attempt to shield herself from the edible missiles that Daddy was launching her way. As the brainbot listened to her surprised cry and watched the chunky, sloppy mess splatter across her shoulder and arm, it bobbed in the air excitedly, bowging in triumph at the messy direct hit it had just scored.

Megamind had just popped his head out from behind his hiding place at the other end of the table to send another handful of sweet potatoes rocketing her way when he saw good old Number 121 dousing her arm with an enormous, sticky blob. _Oh god, that was PERFECT!_

"_HA!_ Good Bo…" he began to whoop zealously, but was stopped short by two separate blasts in the face, both hitting him at once from two separate locations… 121 had happily decided that now it was Daddy's turn.

"Ha _HA!_ Beat _that_ shot, Spacey!" Roxanne laughingly taunted as she watched both her pitch, and that of the bouncy bot that hovered above them hit home.

All of the sudden, noisy activity had begun to attract the attention of the horde of wrestling brainbots that had confined their game to the far corner of the room so as to avoid being "thrown out of there on their domes", as Minion had so forcefully put it. More than a dozen red, glowing, mechanical eyes watched the proceedings with curiosity when Daddy and his victim began tossing their dinner at each other; their eyestalks snapping back and forth as though they were observers at a tennis match.

Daddy had been acting incredibly _strangely _all day long; first, he'd scolded them so firmly for trying to round up Miss Ritchi when they caught her sneaking around the dining room, and then he allowed her to stay there and keep right on doing it, as though he didn't mind it a bit. And now this! Throwing _food?_ He'd always been so quick tempered with _they_ tried to play with his food… what in the world had gotten _into_ him today?

The passel of robotic spectators was growing increasingly curious as the action progressed between the two opponents, and as the mushy parcels of Thanksgiving dinner flew faster with each throw they began to feel the overwhelming urge to join in. It looked like so much _fun!_ But as they watched the activity and trembled with longing to lob a giant pincerful of their own, each one of them replayed Minion's warning over and over again in their memory banks. Even if all they could do was hover on the sidelines and watch, there was no _way_ they were going to do anything to risk being sent away and miss out on a show like this!

Whoa, hold on. There was Number 121 getting to join in on the fun, and they weren't invited… again! Well, that wasn't fair at all; what made _that_ bot so dang special? If 121 got to play food fight with Daddy and Miss Ritchi, they were going to play too, no matter _what_ Minion had to say about it!

With a sudden rush of long arms and flashing metal, the dining room was swarming with brainbots as they converged on the table and began scooping up rolls, turkey, wads of stuffing, napkins… anything they could get their metallic claws on, and tossing it willy-nilly around the room. Roxanne stopped in mid-throw, her arm raised in the act of catapulting another glop of their meal at Megamind, and stood still as she watched in awe as absolute chaos erupted all around her in her captor's beautiful dining room.

The strangest thing of all about the rest of the brainbots joining in was that they didn't really seem to know, or care, where they were throwing their ammunition. Everywhere she looked, a bot was chucking something sticky at a painting on the wall, the chandelier, the table, the draperies, the service-bots with their musical instruments, their "Daddy", each other… there was so much going on all at once and in so many locations around the room, it was almost overwhelming.

The stunned reporter was roused from her momentary lapse of attention to their battle when a clumped handful of stuffing hit her in the side of the head, sticking in her hair, and was followed by the immediate and wickedly immature laughter of her kidnapper as he once again ducked for cover behind the table.

"You got it in my HAIR! _Ugggh_… you are _SO_ going to regret that, _Megamind!_"

* * *

Minion was beginning to feel guilty for having been gone for so long; he'd been rummaging around in the cupboards in the kitchen for nearly ten minutes before he finally found his fish flakes. He had thought several times about just throwing in the towel and heading back to the dining room, but it was hard to imagine eating his turkey dinner without his favorite seasoning, those flakes would complement the flavors of his meal perfectly.

Besides, when he thought back at the look that Megamind had given him just before he'd left, he thought it might be a good idea to give him a few more minutes to let him simmer down. Yes, by the time he made his way back to the dining room, he was sure that Sir would be in a much better mood.

He could tell that things were improving between his boss and Miss Ritchi when he left too; she had been smiling and laughing and looking quite relaxed, and although his master was still rather moody, the grouchiness seemed to be directed a little more toward him… and that was no big deal; the fish took most of his boss' grumbling with a grain of salt anyway. No, Minion was _certain_ that they would be getting along swimmingly by the time he stepped through the dining room door; at least until they started up on the scheduled plan after dinner. He just knew they'd end up enjoying each other's company, especially when he thought about some of the looks he'd noticed Megamind sporting that afternoon since their dinner party began. No matter how much the villain tried to hide it, the astute little creature _knew_ his boss had a soft spot down deep for his lovely victim.

As he finally began clunking his way happily down the hallway toward the dining room with his fish flakes clutched in his robotic hand and his mind full of glowing thoughts of the three of them sitting down to enjoy a nice holiday meal together… almost like a real family, something neither one of them had ever known… his auditory sensors began to pick up a bit of a ruckus up ahead.

_What in the world,_ thought Minion as he drew closer to his destination and realized without a doubt that all the noise was coming from inside the dining room. As he approached the door, he stopped for a moment to listen carefully, his scaly forehead wrinkling with concentration. There was such a mess of sounds coming from inside, it was difficult to say with any accuracy what was happening; but one noise that seemed to be rising loud and clear above all the others was the bowging of the brainbots… lots, and _lots_ of bowging.

_Oh, I bet those darn bots are at it again_, the little fish predicted as he leaned in closer to the door, wanting to be able to catch them at the most opportune time to scare the micro-chips out of them when he burst in and caught them in the act of being obnoxious. Megamind was _more_ than capable of taking on the rowdy pack of bots on his own of course, but he seemed so distracted and out of sorts that day. That was a perfect recipe for chaos where the brainbots were concerned, who would take a moment of distraction and run rampant with it to get away with as much bad behavior as they possibly could. When things got out of hand like that, it often took both of them to reign in the naughty creatures and set them straight.

Just as he maneuvered in as close to the doorway as possible so he could peek around the edge of the frame and catch a glimpse of the goings on inside but still remain unseen, one of the service-bots came bursting through the door and sped away down the hall. The poor thing almost appeared to be in a panic, and was covered from top to bottom with smudges and glops of something greasy that Minion wasn't able to get a good look at as it breezed by.

"What the _heck_?" wondered the mystified henchman out loud to himself as he watched it retreat to the kitchen, and then he turned, and hesitantly stepped through the door.

* * *

**Thank you again for reading! Please watch for the final chapter, which should be coming up by the end of next week as long as I have as much time to write as I'm expecting. Just in time to be finished before the next holiday! Yay!**

**Now I have a very quick request for you… the last two updates of this story have gotten so few reviews, it's almost _embarrassing_. As all my fellow authors know, it's very discouraging to put all the time and work that goes into creating a story for our fellow fans to enjoy, only to receive little or no response. I'm not sure if everyone is too busy to review, or if this story just sucks, or worst of all, if there are less Megamind fans out there these days to take the time to read to begin with. (That would make me SO sad!) :(**

**It's my goal to improve as an author each time I write a story, but I do need to hear a little feedback in order for me to be able to do that, so please take a moment to let me know how I'm doing here. If you like this story at all, or if you have any tips that could give me a gentle push to help me improve, I would be incredibly grateful. And of course, hearing from my fan-friends **_**does**_** encourage me to take the time keep on writing, something that's not always easy for me to do with all the pulls of family and other responsibilities in my life.**

**So if you don't mind, **_**PLEASE**_** review for me this time around… but be gentle! Thank you so much! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Oops, once again, I'm uploading this chapter without the help of my beta, (I'm just in a hurry to get this out there today) so it's likely that you'll come across some typos here and there. So just like last time, let's pretend you didn't see those, okay? Thanks! ;)**

**So here ya go… hope you like it!**

* * *

The instant Minion stepped inside the frame of the door, the hubbub of noise that his auditory sensors had picked up on from down the hall rose to an overwhelming din, and the fish's hesitant curiosity was immediately replaced with a feeling of dread… it sounded like there was a _riot_ going on in there! Pausing for a moment, he took a deep breath, and then with trepidation, he reached out his robotic hand to draw the plush draperies aside.

_Oh… my… GOSH… _

The glorious dining room that he had so carefully cleaned and arranged and decorated in preparation for the greatest feast of the year had been transformed into a _wreck_, all in a span of less than ten minutes_. _No, not just a wreck; a landscape of destruction of almost epic proportions. Everywhere he looked, the once beautiful room that he had put so much care and effort into making the nicest part of the Lair was an absolute _disaster_.

The enormous, heavy oak table had been crazily knocked askew, and several of the intricately carved, velvety chairs were tipped haphazardly on their sides. The crisp, white tablecloth that had once been beautifully pressed, perfectly centered, and adorned with tasteful dishes and the elegant centerpiece that he had picked out for the big day had been yanked from its position, and now hung from the edge of the table at one end. It pathetically continued to vie for its place on the tabletop, clinging there only by the weight of the vase of flowers and the few dishes that remained to hold it down while the majority of it lay stretched across the floor, ending in a wrinkled wad.

Dishes were strewn about everywhere; even the serving platters that were once laden with the lovely dinner he'd worked so hard to prepare were dumped over and spread throughout the room, the remainder of what they once held reduced to lumpy smears on the table or the rug. The only real reminder of how amazing this once grand feast had actually been was the heavenly smell of turkey and stuffing as it continued to drift thickly and deliciously throughout the room.

Minion was speechless. There was so much devastation, it was impossible for the fish to take it all in at once. He felt momentarily stunned as his eyes slowly swept the mess at the lower levels of the room, closer to the floor. But as he began to stumble deeper into the epicenter of chaos, almost tripping over a large and ornate candleholder that had apparently rolled near the door, his eyes began to stray upward… and he immediately wished he would have kept them focused on the ground.

No matter where he looked, every item in the room was plastered with a sludgy smattering of Thanksgiving dinner. Giant glops of potatoes had been spattered on several of the rare paintings that Sir had so thoughtfully stolen for him from the Art Museum, slippery gravy dripped from the ceiling in various places, a turkey leg hung precariously from the chandelier, lumpy smears of cranberries and sweet potatoes decorated the draperies, and the gigantic screen, which had once played scenes of the year's best plans and was currently left blank and forgotten, had been pummeled with an array of now unidentifiable foods.

And right in the center of the room above the table hummed a swarm of brainbots that had completely gone _berserk_.

At this point there was very little left of the feast for the terribly behaved bots to fling at each other, but they were certainly doing their best to find what they could, even going to the lengths of scraping up chunks that had already been splattered and giving them a good hard toss. And where there was nothing to scrape up, the bots were swooping down to pick up the utensils, snuffed out candles, napkins; anything they could find that was just the right size for throwing.

Where nothing was left to throw at all, the bots had taken to aimlessly zipping around, chasing each other madly or playing tug of war with the silverware, just as 121 had gotten them to do earlier…

The instant the memory of that incident crossed his mind, the stunned expression on the fish's face sank into an angry scowl… Minion was suddenly certain he knew _exactly_ how all this had happened.

_Ooooh, where is that little trouble maker! That thing's going into mothballs as SOON as I get my hands on it! _

Surging forward into the thick of the swarming anarchy with determination, Minion had to dodge various missiles that flew by dangerously close as he scanned the tumultuous pack of brainbots for the one that had without a doubt been the instigator behind this whole mess. Despite his attempts to root out the culprit, there were so many of the little buggers dashing around the room, and all of them moving so astoundingly quickly, it was nearly impossible for the aquatic creature to discern which one was the incredibly naughty Number 121.

One thing he _did_ notice, however, was the apparent absence of Sir and Miss Ritchi. As he attempted to move deeper into the uproar, he was shocked that they seemed to have vanished from the room. Sir would never stand for behavior like this from any bot; why would he just up and leave? Maybe he and Miss Ritchi had decided to step out and look for the missing fish while had been taking his time in the kitchen, and the bots decided that would be a perfect time to go nuts.

With a tiny shrug, the frustrated fish brushed his momentary ruminations aside, and once again began to scour the room for the offending bot that was about to have a long and unfortunate date with a dusty old shelf in the back of the storage facility…

* * *

Roxanne was really getting into the spirit of this food fight. With each blob of Thanksgiving cuisine that pelted her, and every chunk that she shot across the table to watch as it struck her adversary, she was feeling more and more wrapped up in the intoxicating spirit of competition with her kidnapper. It felt _so good_ to finally be able to get a little of her own back against the guy who had been snatching her away from the pressing demands of her own life and annoying her to no end for years, even if all she did was lob handfuls of turkey dinner at him. And after the way he'd behaved today, he deserved _every_ face full of slop he got.

But… she was running out of ammunition. And it appeared that Megamind might be running low too. In fact, as soon as the brainbots joined in the fray, their available stock began to dwindle quickly; the greedy bots proceeded to scoop up as much of the edible arsenal as they could to fling without rhyme or reason around the room. In the ensuing confusion, Roxanne and Megamind both had to retreat to their own respective corners of the battlefield with as much of their own ammunition as they could rustle up, which consisted of nothing more than ducking down between their end of the table and their enormous chairs, to retreat from the sticky onslaught that rained down on them from above.

Of course, neither one of the combatants were giving up; far from it. At this point they were simply playing it safe, waiting until the perfect moment when their adversary peeked around the edge of their hiding place and showed a little more skin than they intended, and then popping up to send a barrage of rolls or turkey or devilled eggs sailing toward their target. And their tactic worked like a charm; they were relatively protected from the bots as they buzzed around the room like a swarm of bees gone mad, and yet had both been able to get in some _really_ great shots at one another, and throw in plenty of verbal cheap shots to go along with them.

But it hadn't been long before the stockpile she'd nabbed and kept within easy reach had been reduced to nothing more than what was left of the serving platter of mashed potatoes that she'd been lucky enough to slide across the table for her own use before the brainbots could take it all. She had in fact used up most of her arsenal, and was down to what amounted to one last, sloppy handful of the pasty white weapon that she could send rocketing his way… and she was determined to make that final shot count.

The little bit of previously crisp, white cloth that had adorned the table so gracefully was currently drooping to the floor on Megamind's end of the table, spilling over the corner and offering a perfect concealing curtain that prevented them from seeing one another when they dove for cover from the bots or snatched up another handful of ammo to launch at their opponent; or at Number 121, who continued to resolutely focus its competitive attention on them instead of joining in on the free-for-all with its brothers.

But things had suddenly become pretty quiet at the other end of the table, and right at about the same time that Roxanne realized she was just about out of her store of munitions. She wasn't sure if the absence of attack from her captor meant that he was running low himself, or if he was waiting deceitfully to peg her the next time she peeked around the edge of the table to see what he was up to.

As she wiped her hands on her already filthy pants and glanced down at the last of the potatoes, she knew that either way, this battle was almost over. Now really wasn't the time to wonder about what Megamind was doing as he sat sneakily at the other end of his white, cotton barricade; it was time to start planning ahead about how she was going to extract herself from this very messy situation. In hindsight, all this food fight had turned out to be was a diversion; a very sloppy way to milk a little more time for her away from that god-awful plan that she had no desire to suffer through. All she wanted to do was go _home_.

God, it really would be torture this time for her to have to sit through that scheme of his now that she was covered from head to toe with food. Just thinking about it made her itch; she could already feel the potatoes and gravy beginning to dry on her skin and in her hair, and she couldn't imagine anything worse than sitting there tied to her chair, covered in a smeary coat of flakey, dried, Thanksgiving Day feast.

_Well,_ she thought as she looked up at the cloud of brainbots that zigged and zagged above the table crazily, _I guess I could just make a run for the door… Okay, yeah. As soon as he sticks that big head of his out from behind the table, I'll give this last bit of potatoes a good hard throw and hit him right in the face, and when he's distracted I'll get the heck out of here. I don't think the brainbots are going to try to grab me this time, they're WAY too distracted; and it won't matter if they peg me on my way out, I can't get much dirtier than I already am…_

Feeling a little bit better about her situation now that she had a plan, even if it wasn't a very good one… she had no clue how she was going to find her way out of the Lair once she left the dining room, she'd have to cross that bridge when she came to it… she worked her way to the edge of the table to peek one eye around the corner and wait.

She didn't have to wait long before a flash of blue skin showed itself above the tabletop; Megamind had apparently grown tired of waiting for her to make a move, and decided it was time to carefully peek out from behind his hiding place to take stock of the situation.

_Okay, there he is,_ the brunette schemed privately as she watched him like a hawk and silently reached for the last, cold handful of mashed potatoes, preparing to give it her best pitch.

_Not yet… Just needs to be up a little higher there… Wait for it… This shot has GOT to count…_

The blue menace was ever so slowly working his way up higher above the edge of the table and peeking across the polished wooden top that was now covered with a splattered mess of spilled wine glasses, broken dishes, and chunks of food to see what his captive was up to. When he realized he was unable to see what she was doing from that vantage, he quickly glanced up above him with an amusingly frustrated expression at the riot of brainbots that flew about completely out of control, and Roxanne had to take a moment to steel herself against the urge to snicker at the way he was always so adorably unable to hide his emotions. _Knock it off, girl! Focus…_

* * *

From behind the safety of his hiding place, Megamind furiously watched his pets tear apart Minion's favorite room, and wondered how in the world he was ever going to regain control over them again. He was truly disappointed in them; the behavior he was seeing them display right now was absolutely _horrifying_. And how was he going to explain all this to poor Minion?

But of course, as much as he hated to admit it, it was partially his fault; he and Roxanne were the ones that had gotten this whole mess started to begin with when they had both lost their tempers. The bots simply saw what was going on, and being the infuriatingly brainless tin cans that they were, they thought it looked like fun, and decided to follow suit… _despite_ the repeated attempts to program and train them that it was simply not acceptable to throw food, or anything other than their toys, inside the Lair.

At this point, they had progressed to a state of chaos that was so advanced, it would be next to impossible to rein them in again; especially now that they had observed their Daddy breaking all the rules. Why follow rules when even _Daddy_ had decided it was okay to break them?

_Well, there's always the master control switch,_ he thought with irritation as he distractedly began to focus the fullness of his attention on his naughty mechanical pets. With the flip of that one switch, he could shut the lot of them down in an instant and scoop them all up to deposit them in the storage facility for a good, long stint in mothballs. But Megamind was loathe to do that; flipping that switch would not only shut down _these_ brainbots, but the entire unit that these particular bots belonged to. What a pain! He'd have to go through the process of rebooting the bunch of them after the offending bots had been deposited in their place on that dusty old shelf. Besides, it would shut down Number 121, who, despite an annoying penchant for biting, had proven itself to be loyal and completely worthy of his thanks.

_I'll have to do something nice for that little bot as soon as this whole mess is over with…  
_

* * *

Roxanne continued to watch her opponent from her well hidden vantage point beneath the table, tensely waiting until the timing was absolutely perfect. The moment the entirety of the distracted villain's blue head was free and clear of the protection of the tabletop, and his brilliant green eyes were locked on his mechanical pets as they ran rampant throughout the room, Roxanne leapt up from her hiding place and let her ammunition fly with all her strength. But just as her arm carried through to snap off that pitch that was _supposed_ to be perfect, her foot slipped on a blob of gravy that had pooled on the carpet next to her. Although it was a tiny slip and she was able to correct herself immediately, the momentary loss of balance had been just enough to send her throw flying a little higher than she'd planned.

… _Oh no!_

As Megamind focused on the swirling mass of out of control metal above him and attempted to puzzle out the best option for bringing their antics to an immediate halt, he suddenly noticed a quick glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye at the other end of the table... _Miss Ritchi's_ end of the table. Kicking himself for having lost his concentration on the battle they'd been waging while he became wrapped up in observing his horribly behaved pets, he glanced down quickly, hoping that he might still be able to snatch up something from his rapidly disappearing stock of arms to pelt her with, or at least to dash out of the way before she was able to pummel him.

But it was too late. The villain's eyes suddenly grew wide with astonishment as he saw his victim jump up as though she were spring loaded, and watched with shock as that slender, dainty arm of hers drew back, and snapped off a perfectly developed pitch that sent a giant clump of something gloppy rocketing straight for him….

Roxanne cringed with utter disappointment as her eyes followed that final shot sailing with the velocity of a steam engine, but just a little too high; barely missing its intended target, and heading straight for… Minion.

_Oh my god, MINION? When did he get here? Oh no…_

Megamind watched his captive, the perfect Roxanne Ritchi, with surprised fascination… the moment she sent that bolt of something goopy blasting toward him, her pretty face had been filled with an expression of wicked glee that rivaled his when he was at his feeling at his most maniacal. But an instant later, that schemingly e-vil look fell into one of horror as the sticky mess sailed right above his head. With a gasp, her hands suddenly clapped to her mouth and she stood as still as a stone, her eyes filled with shock and regret as she stared hard at _something_ behind him.

_What in the world… _thought the evil genius as his eyes narrowed in perplexity; and with a tense feeling of uneasiness, he slowly turned to see what it was that could have so effectively stopped the gutsy reporter in her tracks.

* * *

As Minion pushed on ahead through the disaster that had once been his favorite room, he could feel his temper beginning to rise like steam in a pressure cooker.

_Just look at this mess! And how am I going to explain all of this to Sir when he gets back… oh, he's NOT going to be happy when he sees this!_

He had always been a very easy going fish; quick to forgive and blessed with the ability to let the discouragements in life roll off his fins with ease… but sometimes enough was enough, and right now was one of those times. He couldn't wait to grab hold of that darn bot and carry him off to storage; it would be quite a while before 121 would be seeing the light of day again… but he was going to have to have to find it first, and that was proving to be much more difficult than he had first imagined.

No matter where he looked, bots were buzzing in crazy circles like hornets; even the camera bots, which usually tended to be more reliable, had given up their revered job of providing entertainment for the Boss and decided to join in. And the service bots… they were adding to the frenzy of mechanized mayhem as they dashed about from one end of the room to the other a panic, attempting to avoid becoming a target in their more intelligent counterparts' free-for-all. With so many of his master's creations going berserk in such a confined space, and all of them looking so much alike, it was nearly impossible to discern one from the other.

Stepping over a pile of broken dishes as he slowly attempted to push his way through the madness, Minion happened to glance up just above the table… one of the brainbots seemed to be hovering in that area quite consistently, and it looked awfully familiar. Squinting his brown eyes to focus more intently on the bot in question, he took a few steps closer... ah, there it was, the little troublemaker! But, what was it doing?

The spacefish stopped for a moment to watch the mechanical creature with curiosity; Number 121 was behaving _quite_ differently from its brothers. The strange little bot was hanging exclusively around the area of the table, dashing from one end to the other and refusing to leave its self-assigned post, despite the attempts of the other bots to tease it and provoke it to play. It was intently focusing its attention on the table and the floor that surrounded it, barely even glancing its red eye up at the swirl of activity that it was in the midst of… a very un-brainbot-like thing to do.

Often, as the creature would zip back and forth, it would swoop down to scoop something up from the table, and then lob it at the floor; almost as though it was trying to hit something that lay hidden underneath… it really was acting strangely! Maybe the reason for its terrible behavior today was that it was malfunctioning? Yes, that seemed to make sense; in fact, that would explain everything.

Despite feeling a massive dose of frustration at the bot that had started it all, Minion couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for the poor thing. He decided to take it to the workroom and have a good look at it when he was able to grab hold of it to see if he could pinpoint a possible problem. Better yet, he'd have Sir take a look; he was always able to find little flaws in their programming, or issues with their wiring or other hardware that the fish might accidentally miss.

As he stumbled forward again determinedly, his eyes still locked on his quarry, Minion's attention was suddenly piqued by a movement at the end of the table closest to him; a flash of blue and hint of black leather.

_Wha… wait a minute, what's Sir doing down there?_

Although he'd apparently been there the whole time, he'd been completely hidden by the enormity of the chair, and his henchman had missed him. Minion stopped again, feeling somewhat mystified as to why his Boss would simply hide out under the table in the midst of the chaos rather than leaping up to whip the bots into shape… and if that didn't work, make a dash for the master control switch and shut them all down in one fell swoop. Minion himself had been momentarily tempted to do the same thing, but Sir hated the extra work that went into using that switch, and had strictly forbidden his sidekick from touching it without obtaining his permission first.

The little fish watched his master with increasing perplexity. Geez, this whole situation was getting weirder and weirder… he still couldn't quite see what was going on, but it appeared that Sir had been crawling around on the floor, and had peeked his head up to get a better look at what was going on. Why would he do something like that? And where was Miss Ritchi?

_Oh, okay_… suddenly, as he watched the offending bot launch a pincerful of ammunition at his master and then dash to do the same thing at the other end of the table, things were beginning to make a little more sense. Sir must be taking cover from 121 on this end of the table, and Miss Ritchi must be…

_Oh, there she is! Well thank goodness, I'm glad to see she's still here and things are okay, but… Ooooh, she looks pretty mad though… What's she doing with that handful of... Whoa, hold on... Oh... no..._

* * *

**Yes, I'm being a bit cruel to break it off here… sorry! I'll get that last chapter done and out for you guys as quickly as I can, and just so y'all know, it has a happy ending. That may be a bit of a spoiler, but that's ok.**

**Thank you for all the wonderful reviews for my last update! And ya know, I would really love to get some feedback for this one too! I admit to being somewhat insecure if I don't hear from the folks who enjoy my stories… I start to worry that I kind of suck at this writing gig. lol! Anyone else go through that? I'm sure we all do from time to time. So, yeah… please, PLEASE take a sec to leave me a kind comment! Thanks! ;)**

**Oooh, one more quick note… in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I wanted to give a shameless plug for one of my older stories. Please run to my profile page and check out my V-day fic, "Valentine's Day Surprise in The Park". It's pretty fun; sweet and fluffy, and one of my faves out of my own stories. You might get a kick out of it too. And if you haven't already, please leave me a happy review there too. Thank you! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

As Minion stood in the center of the swirling confusion, he watched as Roxanne, the highly honored guest whom he had defended so vehemently in order to ensure that she'd be allowed to join them for their favorite holiday feast, popped up from behind the other end of the table with a look that… well, it actually reminded him of his _boss_ when he was at his most e-vil; and pitched a fistful of what appeared to be mashed potatoes right at _him_. One moment, the world was abuzz with the chaos of uncontrolled brainbots and flying food; the next, it was completely obscured in a starchy, sludgy sheet of white with an echoing slap that made his little head feel as though it were spinning inside his bowl.

Minion was shocked. Too shocked to move; or to speak… or even to think. He simply stood still, his furry, metal arms drooping at his sides, and his fangy mouth hanging agape behind its veil of the side dish that he had labored over with such care to serve to his boss and Miss Ritchi.

The whole situation was so unexpected and so odd, it almost felt surreal, and Minion had the fleeting thought that maybe this was all just a really weird dream. What magnified the strangeness of the moment even more was that when Roxanne's fistful of edible ammunition smacked his glass dome with a watery ping, the noisy hubbub that had surrounded him from the second he'd stepped into the room instantly ceased, dropping off into silence… the confused fish could have heard a pin drop.

The room was suddenly filled with a tension that was so thick, it could have been sliced and served with tea, and the tenderhearted sidekick of Metrocity's most evil menace could feel every eye in the room locked on him; both living and mechanical… glowing red, bright green, and baby blue.

It took a moment for the fish to regain his wits after his dousing with what had once been the dinner that he'd worked so hard on, and even when he did, and had recovered enough to reach his furry arm up to wipe away the mess, his astute little mind was still working hard to piece together exactly what was going on.

_But… Miss Ritchi was throwing food… the food I made for her… SHE wouldn't do that! Would she? But… she did, and… why in the world would she throw this mess at ME? _

When his dome was wiped free of its coating and his vision was clear enough to take new stock of his surroundings, the sight that met his big, sad brown eyes was sufficient to unsettle even the most tried and true, loyal, and cheerful of all sidekicks. Everyone in the room was frozen in place and watching him intently; brainbots, Miss Ritchi and Megamind alike… and all of them looking as guilty as heck. Not only looking guilty, but covered in the mess that was currently shrouding the walls, and ceiling and floor… doused from dome to pincer, from head to toe.

They'd _all_ been part of this disaster; Megamind and… and yes, even Roxanne; not just the brainbots. In fact, when Minion looked at his best friend, whom he knew like the back of his robotic hand and whose expressions he could read like a novel, he realized that not only had Sir and Miss Ritchi been _part_ of the mess, they'd likely been the _cause_ of it all; not the naughty bot who had been Minion's original suspect.

Ugh, they'd been fighting, _again,_ hadn't they! Yes, now Minion knew for certain. That's what this was all about; those two had been at it again as _soon_ as he left the room, and this time they'd really lost their tempers… and all of _this_ was the result of their stubborn, petty refusal to see eye to eye, even for just a little while.

And as he thought about the pig-headed, juvenile behavior that had started it all, the steam inside the pressure cooker of Minion's temper once again began to build…

* * *

Megamind turned slowly, a feeling of dread at what he might find clutching at him after watching Roxanne's expression sink into one of such deep regret and horror… she'd even turned _pale_ at whatever it was that had stopped her in her tracks. In all his days of kidnapping and terrorizing her, he'd never been able to make her go as white as a sheet with as much effectiveness as the unknown something that waited somewhere behind him. Oh man, he hoped it wasn't…

"Oh no; Min-ion!" breathed the blue villain worriedly the instant his eyes met the sight of his fishy friend, standing as still as stone in the stunned silence that came along with the fistful of potatoes that had been splattered all over the front of his dome only an instant before.

He waited a moment, watching his sidekick as he continued to stand as still as a frozen fish stick. _The poor little guppy must be shocked out of his wits_, thought Megamind with concern as he anticipated his friend's response, but was met with nothing but silence… so very unlike the cheerful spacefish that was always ready with a bright word and a chipper greeting no matter what the situation.

The two of them stood like statues in the art museum downtown for what seemed like ages before Minion slowly seemed to stir to life, and raised his furry arm to swipe the mess away from his dome. When his vision was cleared, his big brown eyes began to take in the situation, sweeping through the crowd of brainbots that suddenly seemed to have come to their senses and had moved guiltily to the edges of the room in an attempt to fade into the background, and then finally resting on the two co-conspirators… but he persisted in his stunned silence, his toothy mouth hanging wide open with the weight of words that he didn't seem to have the strength to say in his moment of horrified astonishment.

When the seconds continued to tick by without a word from his friend, Megamind spun back to look at Roxanne questioningly in hopes of being struck with a sudden epiphany about how to handle this awkward situation, and discovered that the reporter was in quite a shocked state of her own. She was still staring at the poor aquatic creature with her hands clapped to her mouth, her head shaking slowly in denial and an expression of terrible guilt swimming in her wide, deep pools of crystalline blue.

Just as Megamind was beginning to think she'd lost it too, the brunette's eyes seemed to spark awake again, and she slowly dropped her hands and made her way across the vast dining room, reaching out hesitantly toward the robo-fish and saying in a worried voice, "Minion? Oh, Minion… I'm so, _so_ sorry. Are you okay?"

The fish's eyes dropped to rest on Roxanne as she spoke to him, still looking somewhat confused, and incredibly vulnerable.

Roxanne stopped a few feet away from him and looked up into those big, sad eyes, feeling guiltier than she had ever felt in her life. She _hated_ that she'd allowed herself to lose control of her temper and start this whole fiasco, and wished she could take it all back; every bit of it. She wished that she could do something; _anything_ to take away that wounded look on his sweet little face.

After a moment of tense silence, she tried again. "Minion, I really am… "

"_NO!_" interrupted the fish with a snap, his vulnerable, confused expression suddenly pinching into a withering scowl. The mounting pressure of his slowly but steadily building temper had reached its peak, and the patient, slow to anger spacefish was finally at his wits end; he had _completely_ blown his top. His abrupt intrusion had come so quickly and utterly without warning, and the tone of his usually polite and friendly voice was so filled with fierce resentment, it made both Roxanne and Megamind jump.

"_Look_ at this place! You did this, _both_ of you… _all of it!_ This is all your fault! All I wanted was for the three of us to spend one, measly holiday together and enjoy each other's company for once without fighting… sort of like… a family, you know? Couldn't you at least have just _pretended_ that you like each other for a little while? But no, you couldn't even do that! And now _I_ get to clean all this up; wow, this is just _great_. Really nice Thanksgiving; thanks a lot!"

Megamind held up his hands calmly in a "_simmer down"_ motion, and began, "Hold on now Minion. Listen…"

"No, I don't _want_ to listen! This is all because _you_ just couldn't leave well enough alone…" and then rounding on Roxanne, he snapped, "And because of _you,_ and your temper!"

Megamind and Roxanne stood speechlessly, watching the wounded piscean lecture them like naughty children. He was right; they both knew it.

After a moment, Minion's livid expression sank into a deep frown, and with a quiver in his chin and a tremulous voice, he said, "I just can't even believe it. This was… it was just…"

He stood there for a moment with a lost look in his eyes, obviously searching for the right words to properly complete his sentiment. Then suddenly, his lower lip protruded with a forlorn pout, and he snapped, "… this was _really grown up!"_

With a weepy sniff, the poor little fish swung around and stalked away, disappearing into the corridor in an instant.

Megamind and Roxanne watched him go in silence, and continued to stare after him when he vanished behind the food encrusted drapery that hung before the doorway. The weight of his words stung with truth, and they _both_ felt incredibly guilty for having hurt their sensitive little friend.

Roxanne was the first to awake from the regretful, trance-like frame of mind that seemed to have captured both her, and her kidnapper. With a deep sigh, she blinked and turned away from the door, suddenly feeling as though the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and looked for a place to sit and think… every conceivable location that she could plunk herself down was covered with the slippery, sludgy aftermath of their fracas.

It took her several seconds of scanning the room before she found a section of floor against the wall near the back corner that was relatively splatter free. With a quick glance at Megamind, who was still watching the door and appeared to be waging, and quite possibly losing a terrible wrestling match with his conscience, she traversed across the disaster to her chosen spot, and slowly slid to the ground.

With her back propped against the wall and her arms folded across her gravy spattered knees in front of her, she rested her head behind her with a quiet thump and began to retrace the steps of the evening that had led to such a shameful outcome. She wanted to blame it all on her abductor; she would have _loved_ to dump the whole thing in his lap, dust off her hands and walk away without a second thought, but she knew it was just as much her fault as it was his.

_Ugh, why did I let him get to me like that? It's just Megamind for crying out loud! I should have been able to brush off every trick he threw at me with a smart-mouth comment like I always do. What is it about this day? Everything is upside-down… and now, look at this mess. Oh, poor Minion…_

Megamind continued to stare in the direction of the doorway, re-running the series of mishaps through his own prodigious mind, and coming to much the same conclusion as his victim. Suddenly remembering that he wasn't alone in the room, he turned to find that Roxanne had moved off to a relatively clean corner to quietly sit and contemplate their situation. She glanced up in his direction at just the same moment that he noticed her, and their eyes met briefly before she turned away with another heavy, regretful sigh.

Feeling suddenly compelled to join her and without thinking about what he was doing or why, he carefully picked his way across the room and sank to the floor right next to her. They sat beside one another for a moment, so close their shoulders were touching, and quietly allowed themselves to take in the extent of the wreckage that less than a half hour before had been a beautiful, spotless room filled with autumn holiday cheer.

Seconds stretched on into minutes as the two sat together and surveyed their destructive handiwork; nothing had been left untouched by the food fight they'd instigated. Finally, feeling as though he needed to say something; anything at all to break the uncomfortable silence, Megamind glanced quickly at Roxanne out of the corner of his eye, and then looking back at the chandelier, he ventured to ask curiously, "Did you do that?"

"Do _what?"_ responded the reporter sharply as she turned to look at him with suspiciously narrowed eyes, her defenses still on high alert after the fiasco that had amounted to her afternoon spent with the man who sat beside her.

Waving an arm in the direction of the center of the room, he answered, "That turkey leg up there on the _chaun-_delier; was that you?"

Roxanne followed his motion with her eyes, and noticed for the first time the piece of golden brown, roasted poultry that dangled precariously from the crystal embellished fixture. For some reason, the ridiculous sight of the drumstick caught in the extravagant light suddenly struck her as funny, and with a quick, huffing laugh, she said, "No, that wasn't me. Turkey was pretty hard to come by; the brainbots snapped it all up as soon as they decided to bust in on our little… um, _disagreement_. But look at that thing; how's that even hanging on?"

"Yes, it does seem to be expertly balanced, doesn't it? Quite impressive, actually. And yes, you're right about that turkey, too. The brainbots don't like to get their pincers dirty if they can help it, especially with something as sticky as the other entrees that Minion fixed up for us. They'll use it of course, but it gums up their gears and hinges. The turkey would have been the first thing they'd go for."

Suddenly feeling her inquisitive nature being piqued, she turned to look at him and said, "You sound like you're speaking from experience. Is this a… uh, _regular_ sort of thing that goes on around here?"

"Yes, actually." he answered distractedly as his eyes began to wander the room again, this time looking up toward the ceiling with a cringe to take in the glops of gravy that glistened on the molding.

Roxanne's eyes flew wide, and with a surprised laugh that she couldn't hold back, she responded, "_What?_ You're kidding!"

"No, really. Well, it _used_ to be quite a regular thing… the little beasts would go after our meals whenever they could get away with it until Minion and I trained them to knock it off, but never anything on a scale like this. After today though, it looks like we've taken ten steps back in the progress we've made with them… we'll have to watch them like hawks for the next couple of months to make sure they don't try it again; they'll be _insufferable!_"

Roxanne smiled as she listened to him talk about his creations the way some people talked about their beloved but infuriating Labradors; it was actually kind of cute to listen to him going on about his robotic pets. Now that the angry emotional high had died down after Minion's scathing lecture and she was able to sit back and listen to him in a more objective state of mind, she realized that there were a lot of things about this fascinating, charming, enigmatic man that were kind of cute… and she _might_ even allow herself to go so far as to say rather _attractive_...

Realizing where her stream of thought was taking her, she immediately brushed her contemplation aside and followed Megamind's gaze as he scanned the room. She huffed sadly, and said, "I can't believe the mess we made… poor Minion. I feel _so_ bad. And after everything he did for us, too…"

Megamind cast a quick glance back at her, and responded, "I know; it's a disaster. I feel terrible."

The reporter suddenly shot an astonished look at him… Megamind? Admitting to feeling terrible about something?

Feeling her eyes locked on him, he turned a questioning gaze at his captive and quipped, "What? Is it so strange that I feel bad for Minion? He _is_ my best friend, what do you expect?"

She stifled a sudden urge to laugh as a sly smile spread across her face at his admission, and she teased, "Well, well… the great and maniacal Megamind is actually admitting that he possesses something that resembles a conscience? How about that!"

The blue villain rolled his eyes at her prodding, and responded with a frustrated huff, "No, that's _not_ what I'm saying! I just, well… you see… Ugh, I'm just digging myself a deeper hole here. Just forget you ever heard me say that, ok?"

The exasperated expression on his face combined with the way he stumbled over his words broke through the blue eyed woman's composure, and she found herself being whisked away by a storm of laughter, leaning forward with the effort and absentmindedly reaching out to hold onto the crook of his arm... a gesture that wasn't lost on Megamind. He felt his heart leap as he gazed down at her slender, feminine hand resting softly against the black leather of his suit.

"Oh god, you're so _funny_ sometimes, you know that? Well don't worry about it, your secret is safe with me, Spacey; I won't tell a _soul_."

"That's right, you'd _better_ not," he warned jokingly, "because everything that happens here today is…"

And knowing exactly what he was about to say after hearing it so many times in the course of past few hours, Roxanne broke in to complete his sentence with him, both of them laughingly saying in unison, _"… off the record." _

After a moment of snickering together, they settled into a hush, Roxanne's hand still holding companionably onto Megamind's arm as they watched the brainbots huddling nervously on the other side of the room, staring at their master intently.

"Wow, I can't believe this," the journalist suddenly piped up after a moment of observing the bots, "But I think I'm actually starting to be able to read their body language; if that's what you can call it… look at them! They actually look _worried_ over there!"

"Yes, well they _should_ look worried! They're afraid they're about to be tossed into mothballs for a month… and believe me…" he continued as he lifted his arm to point at them angrily… not the arm that Roxanne held onto, he didn't want to take a chance of dislodging her grasp and ruining the moment… and raised his voice loudly so his pets could clearly hear him as they clustered in an anxious, trembling knot, "…that's exactly where they belong; I have a nice, dusty spot on that shelf for each and every one of them after their atrocious behavior today! _Bad bots!_ No throwing food!"

Roxanne was so focused on her captor as he busily scolded the guilty brainbots, she had failed to notice a sneaky flicker of movement to her left… a silvery, spiky flicker that was alight with the bright glow of scintillating, electric blue as it edged its way along the floor. As she watched the huddle of bots' trembling increase at the sound of their master's berating, she was suddenly startled by the feeling of something cold and metallic touching her arm.

She looked down with a jolt to find the strange little bot that Megamind had sneakily encouraged to pester her all through dinner as it reached out to poke at her with its pincer, almost as though it was trying to capture her attention. Still somewhat on edge in the presence of the snappy, mechanical creatures, she gasped and quickly jerked her arms away in an attempt to remove her hands from the reach of those shark-like metal jaws. The instant her arms were out of the way and her lap was clear, Number 121 moved in closer, settling itself comfortably on her and looking back and forth between Miss Ritchi and its Daddy with something akin to an expression of adoration.

"What's it doing?" Roxanne asked with a nervous tenor to her voice, glancing quickly at her host as he watched the proceedings with a look that was a mixture of amusement at his pet's antics, and disappointment that Roxanne's hand was no longer holding onto his arm.

Megamind couldn't help but chuckle as he answered, "Look at that, it really _does_ seem to have taken a shine to you, Miss Ritchi…"

"Just call me Roxanne." she broke in unexpectedly as her eyes momentarily lifted to meet his, and then dropped again to apprehensively observe her new companion.

"Oh… but, you told me not to call you that anymore…"

"I know I did. Never mind what I said earlier; just go ahead and call me Roxanne for now, ok?" she said, her voice still betraying a bit of uneasiness as she watched the bot settle in.

"Oh… okay then, Roxanne." he answered, putting forth a great effort to hide the glowing smile that was trying desperately to fix itself to his lips. "Anyway, as I was saying, it's trying to sit with you! I have _hundreds_ of these things you know, but this little fellow is the only one who seems to have it in its dome that it's something of a lap-bot… the silly thing tries this with me quite often when I'm sitting in my chair in the control room. It's quite remarkable actually; they all have a personality of their own, but _somehow_ I seem to have unintentionally given 121 an extra 'dose' in the personality department when it was created. It really is a good little bot… especially if I could figure out how to get it to stop _biting."_

Noticing a sudden increase of nervousness in Roxanne's expression, he quickly added, "But don't worry! It won't bite _you_. After what happened earlier it wouldn't _dare_."

Then reaching out to smooth his hand over the glass of his pet's dome as it nestled in his lovely guest's lap, he cooed, "No, you wouldn't do that, would you? Of course not, because you're my good,_ menacing_ little brainbot, aren't you? Yes! Daddy's _very_ proud of you! Oh yes he is!"

The mechanical lid that shielded the little creature's single, bright red eye began to appear heavy and relaxed in the rapture of the moment as it basked in the attention it was receiving from its creator… ah yes, the praise and adulation of its Daddy… what could _possibly_ be more sublime?

As he patted the happy bot, Megamind glanced up at Roxanne and noticed that she still appeared rather uncomfortable with the spiky creature's close contact… he could hardly blame her in light of the unpleasant greeting she'd received from them when they entered the dining room. Knowing that the move he was about to make next was about as far from evil as possible, but not caring in the slightest, he reached out and gently took her hand as she continued to hold it up and out of the way, and brought it down to the creature's glass dome, saying, "Here, you try… it really won't hurt you…"

Roxanne was surprised at the instant flutter she felt sparking in her chest when he took her hand to place it on the cyborg's dome. Before she could stop herself, she peeked up to steel a look at her captor, and discovered that he was looking at her too, a tiny smile pulling at one corner of his mouth and his emerald green eyes locked on her with a glimmer of affectionate amusement.

"There, you see? It's not so bad, is it?"

"Wow… no, this is… actually kind of amazing, Megamind. Its dome is warm, like it's alive!"

"It _is_ alive!" he answered with a grin, a touch of his manic excitement showing itself when he noted her interest in his creation. "I may have mentioned this before, but it's a cy-borg, so that means it's mechanical in part, obviously; but inside it's as alive as you and I."

They looked at each other a moment longer, blue eyes searching green as she began to appreciate yet _another_ new side to the man who was supposed to be evil to the core, but at the moment seemed like nothing more than a proud dad happily showing off his child. As that thought came to her mind, a smile of her own that seemed to match his perfectly began to spread its way across her lips. The more she learned about him as she bumped her way through this crazy day, the more she realized that there was so much more to the self-proclaimed "Master of All Villainy" than she had ever expected, and something deep inside her hoped that someday she'd have the chance to uncover more of the mysteries of this incredibly unique and complicated man that fascinated her like no other.

Suddenly feeling as though it wasn't being given nearly enough attention from Daddy and Miss Ritchi as they watched one another, Number 121 began to wiggle its way in a little bit closer on the surprised reporter's lap in an attempt to recapture their focus. Luckily, the bot's distracting movements had come at the perfect time… just as their eyes dropped to see what it was up to, Roxanne began to feel a warm flush blooming across her cheeks, and she thanked her lucky stars that she had been able to dodge that bullet; it would _never_ do to have her serial kidnapper see her blushing as they looked at one another like that.

The two quietly sat together on the dining room floor for a while, concentrating on the lucky bot as it soaked up their attention and occasionally turned its single eye in the direction of its brothers with a glance that almost appeared smug, and yet, the pair continued to be mindful of one another's closeness; each contentedly enjoying the other's company. As the minutes wore on, a strangely peaceful mood began to settle over them, and the blue scoundrel suddenly decided that now might be a good time to finally broach a subject that he'd wanted to ask her about for a while; one that tended to bother him immensely…

"Roxanne, just out of curiosity, why do you always call me _Spacey_? I've lost track of how many times you've called me that just today, alone… honestly, it has such offensive connotations! Of course, I get the whole space thing, but it sounds an awful lot like an insult to me; you might as well just start calling me flakey, or absent-minded… or some other disparaging comment that's centered on my intellect! I mean, I'm the most intelligent man on the _planet!_ How can you even begin to justify calling me that?"

Rather surprised at the probing question that seemed to have suddenly sprung up out of left field, the reporter glanced up at her host, and humming a laugh, she answered, "Well yeah, you may be the most intelligent man on the planet… okay, yes… I admit it, _whatever_! But Megamind; _wow_ can you be a space cadet! I'm not kidding; sometimes you're so distracted and checked out, I'm surprised you even remember your own name!"

She couldn't help but snicker for a moment as she watched his expression take on that familiar, indignant air again, but then reaching out to give him a soothing pat on his arm, she continued, "Oh come on, don't get all upset about it; you're not that bad really. Mostly I just do it because it's so much fun… you always look so _hilariously_ annoyed whenever I call you that. Your expressions are priceless!"

His vivid green eyes instantly lit up at her remark, and looking back at her, he teasingly said, "So, you think I'm _cute_, is that what you're trying to tell me? Ah HA! Suddenly everything is becoming crystal clear. I _knew_ my devilishly handsome good looks would wear you down in the end!"

Instantly feeling rather exposed that her long time kidnapper had practically guessed the thoughts that had strayed unbidden through her mind only a few minutes before, the reporter grew somewhat flustered, and responded in a rush, "Whoa… I didn't say that!"

"Ah-ah, there's no denying it; you've let the mouse out of the bag now. I'm _wise_ to you and your little cover-up, Roxanne!"

Recovering quickly, the sharp journalist replied with a shake of her head, "It's _cat_, not mouse, and there is no cover-up. I said you looked_ funny_ when I called you that, not that I thought you were cute… big difference, genius! That head of yours really _is_ big for a reason; you need it to go along with your puffed up ego!"

"Well, go ahead and deny it if you wish, my dear; but I've got you figured out!" he teased triumphantly, a smug grin lighting up his face wickedly.

"Ughhh! You're impossible!" huffed the reporter, and although she rolled her eyes in frustration at his prideful and incessant teasing, she couldn't completely hide the smile that clung to her lovely face.

Another hush settled over the duo as they huddled together in their corner, allowing their minds to wander over the course of the day that had led up to that moment. Suddenly, Megamind spoke up again, his brows creased with the seriousness of something that appeared to be weighing on his mind. "You know, there's another moniker that you've been using against me lately… one that's really been…"

"Oh, come _on_ Megamind… not again! Are we _really_ going to have to go over the whole 'predictable' thing again; can't we just drop it? I mean, that's what started this whole mess! Let's just quit while we're ahead, okay?" Roxanne interrupted in exasperation.

"Well, I really want to know! Do you… honestly think that about me? That I'm predictable?" he asked, a terribly worried look in his eyes as he gazed at her intensely.

Roxanne watched him for a moment as he waited for her answer; he appeared to be deeply disturbed by her favorite insult; in fact, he almost looked wounded. In spite of their long, rather tense history of being at odds with one another, she instantly felt her heart crumble at the hurt look in his eyes.

"Well," she said with a sigh, "Sometimes you are. But then, just when I think I have you completely figured out, you turn around and do something to knock my socks off… like today. There was _nothing_ predictable about _anything_ you did today, Megamind."

"Really?" he asked quietly, a hopeful light beginning to glimmer in his gaze.

"Yeah, you really blew me away. There's a lot about you that I'd never had the chance to realize before; things I got to see today for the first time that, well… let's just say I'm intrigued, and pleasantly surprised, and leave it at that." she smilingly conceded.

"Hmmmm. Well good, I'm glad... that's a _huge_ relief! And you know, I've got to tell you Roxanne, there are a few things I've discovered about you today that I found rather surprising myself." he said with a soft smile as he reached out to carefully pull away a few pieces of stuffing that had gotten stuck in her hair during their battle. Suddenly, the gentle smile he wore shifted to a grin that was chock-full of mischief. With a snicker, he continued on to say, "And one of those things is that you're incredibly _messy_! Look at you, you're a disaster area!"

"Oh, and I suppose none of this is your fault? Well, you're not exactly what I'd call Mr. Clean, either!" she prodded back as she brushed a dried potato smear from the smoothness of his bare, blue head with her thumb.

They smiled at each other for another moment, and then Megamind ventured to ask, "So, now that I've 'knocked your socks off', does that mean you're going to stop calling me predictable?"

"_HA!_ Don't count on it, Spacey!" she quipped with a wink, and then burst into a bubbling laugh when she watched his face fall disappointedly at her answer.

"_Ughhh,_ all right then… _fine,_ you stubborn woman; have it your own way. But you've already admitted to me how you really feel about it; I'm going to be sure to remember that the next time you start in on a round of name calling. Well, I guess it's time for us to get this mess taken care of and then go to see what our fishy friend is up to." he said as he stood up and stretched, and then offered her his hand to help pull her on her feet.

Carefully shooing away Number 121, she reached out to accept his help, and when she was standing next to him and attempting to brush away the crusty covering of drying food from her clothes, she asked, "How are we going to clean all this up? It'll take hours… _days_ to get this mess taken care of!"

"We're not." he answered distractedly, and then turning toward the agitated huddle on the other side of the room, he barked, "_BRAINBOTS!_ Front and center!"

It took mere seconds for the tense creatures to make their way across the room to present themselves in front of him; they knew they were already on thin ice and didn't want to take a chance of getting themselves in deeper trouble than they already were.

"Do you see this mess? You have exactly three hours to have this place spotless! Do _whatever_ it takes to get everything polished and cleaned and repaired, and if you want to avoid that stint in storage, there'd better not be a single spot _anywhere_ in this room that resembles the mess that you bunch have made today, capisce?"

The bots instantly bowged their nervous acknowledgement to his instructions, and then slowly turned their eyestalks to take in the daunting mountain of work that awaited them.

As the cloud of dejected bots dispersed to begin the insurmountable clean-up process, poor little 121 caught up with its brothers from the other side of the room to trail sadly along behind, disappointed that Daddy had ordered _all_ the bots to pitch in. It had hoped that after all it had done to follow its master's instructions to the letter, he might be pleased with it… but instead, it seemed that he was just as disappointed with it as he was with the other of the bots in its unit. With a quick, droopy glance back at its villainous creator and the pretty reporter that stood next to him, the cyborg began to feel the chances of acquiring a new name of its own slipping away…

But just as it began to focus in on a section of the room to start its portion of the clean-up, Megamind's voice piped up from behind it, "Oh no, where do you think _you're_ going, 121? Come on; you're coming with us… we have a fish to find, and you're just the bot to help us do it!"

With a joyous bowg and a sudden burst of speed, the eager brainbot instantly left its brothers and galloped through the air, passing up its boss and his guest in a second and dashing through the door to search for Minion, leaving the busy bunch of cyborgs staring jealously in its wake.

* * *

**Thank you all for sticking with this story… my lovely readers **_**always**_** brighten my heart! **


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm so sorry for the reeeeeally long delay in getting this chapter to you… the last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind!**

**Thanks for coming back again and again to see where this adventure takes our favorite trio! Yes, this story has turned out to be FAR longer than I ever dreamed it would; and I know, I'm still writing about Thanksgiving in April… *massive eyeroll* … but you guys are all AWESOME for sticking with me this long! I can't even begin to tell you all how much I appreciate you, and how very much I adore this amazing fandom!**

**Have fun reading!**

* * *

Down the long, shadowy hall from the dining room, Minion stood with his hands dunked in a sink full of soapy water, thinking. He sniffled as he stared sightlessly down at the stack of pots and pans piled up on the counter, and felt his lip quiver again at the memory of how rude and inconsiderate his boss and Miss Ritchi had been. He was still having a hard time wrapping his fishy brain around the idea that _they_ had been the ones that had started that whole fiasco; created a mess that would live on in infamy after all the work he had put into making their holiday special.

Well actually, when he thought about it, he decided it really wasn't all that surprising that his boss had been an instigator… he could be _so_ petty at times, and he tended get so wrapped up in his emotions, he'd lose every ounce of common sense and self-control he possessed, and simply act on impulse; often with disastrous results. But Roxanne… despite her quick temper, she'd always seemed to have it so much more _together_ than her kidnapper did. Never in a million years would he have guessed that she'd join forces with Megamind to wreak that kind of havoc, even if they _were_ on opposing sides and all the destruction they left in their wake had been directed at one another.

And that face-full of potatoes she'd thrown at him was just shocking. Of course, she'd seemed to have been just as surprised about it as he had been, and she _did_ say she was sorry; but nevertheless, the damage had already been done. Whether they meant to do it or not, his tender feelings had been completely crushed by their utter thoughtlessness.

As he stood at the sink washing a mixing bowl, his furry arms coated almost up to the elbow with suds, the memory of their guilty faces flashed again through his mind, and he could feel the lump in his throat growing bigger by the second. Even the _brainbots_ had looked guilty, despite the fact that without the benefit of facial expressions to help them, it was sometimes difficult for them to exhibit their emotions… they were expressive to be sure, but it took a keen eye and an understanding of the little creatures' moods to truly be able to pick up on their often confusing thought processes. The only people whom he had ever come across that had been able to really make sense of their odd behavior was himself and Sir, and there were times that even the spacefish felt a little mystified by their quirkiness; but not today. Today, their guilt was as evident as the day was long.

With a shake of his body in his watery habitat and a heavy- hearted sniff, Minion swallowed the weepy knot and set his fang-filled jaw stubbornly against the wave of fishy tears that threatened to force their way through his attempts to keep them at bay. He didn't want to dwell on the situation anymore; allowing himself to continue thinking about it hurt his feelings far too much. It was time to try to push the afternoon's fiasco out of his mind and move on. Attempting to focus his thoughts on wading through the clean-up instead… the insurmountable, overwhelming, _mountain_ of clean-up he had waiting for him on his Thanksgiving evening, and all thanks to _them…_ he reached for another pot from the stack and pulled it into the water.

As he scrubbed dejectedly at the greasy pot, he was suddenly roused from his task by an urgent bowg, accompanied by a tug at the string of his apron behind him. Assuming it was one of the service–bots that had escaped the riotous behavior of their counterparts in the dining room and made for the quiet safety of the kitchen to hide, he turned to quickly offer his comfort and then shoo the mechanized creature away so he could continue on with his task, but was surprised to see Number 121.

"Oh, it's _you_… go away!" snapped the spacefish with a scowl when his brown eyes met the sight of the brainbot bobbing excitedly in the air behind him, still covered in a thick, gummy coating of the food that had been used as ammunition in their battle.

Rather than obeying its aquatic overseer, the bot floated up to Minion's eye level and gazed its red orb at him intently as it issued another boisterous bowg, and then zipped away to hover and bounce by the door. It waited there a moment, peeking around the edge of the frame in the direction of the dining room, and then turned again toward the fish as though it was waiting for something with irrepressible anticipation.

"No, 121; I don't care about what they're up to! They can figure that whole mess out by themselves, they're on their own; and Sir can just go ahead and pull off his plan _without_ me this time. I'm staying right here!"

Apparently refusing to give up on whatever mission it seemed to be on, the energetic cyborg dashed forward again with a series of bowgs to circle the fish excitedly.

Minion waved his furry arms at the mechanical pest and grumbled with an irritated huff, "I said no, you crazy bot… go away! _Shoo!"_

As Minion swatted at 121 in attempt to chase him off, the nimble little bot easily dodged his reach, backing off just far enough to bounce in the air safely in front of him, bowging to maintain the fish's attention.

"Uggghhhh, I don't have _time_ for this; I have to clean up _your_ mess! Go on, go bug Sir or something; I don't want to play right now!"

With a final glare at the irritating brainbot and a concerted effort to resist the temptation to pick up one of the cooking utensils in his stack and throw it to the other side of the room in an attempt to preoccupy his pesky companion, he turned to delve once again into his task. As he glared down at the water and continued to scrub, the cyborg pulled and pinched at him relentlessly with sticky pincers, trying to convince the piscean to turn around and follow it, but Minion refused to cooperate. With each tug at his apron strings and yank at the fur on his mecha-suit, the furious fish would heave a frustrated sigh or roll his eyes dramatically and set his bristling jaws in determination to ignore its antics.

After several long and annoying seconds of being incessantly harassed, he had finally had enough. Feeling his already fragile temper about ready to blow for the second time that afternoon, Minion turned to let the infuriating creature know that he was without a doubt _not_ interested in playing. As he swung around with the scathing words he had ready for the bot already on the tip of his tongue, his eyes happened to fall upon the door just in time to see Megamind and Roxanne stepping inside.

The instant his blue friend walked in with the blue eyed reporter following alongside him, every ounce of irritation that Minion had felt toward the brainbot vanished in a flash, and was replaced with the same deep, heartrending hurt that he had felt when he first realized how thoughtless they had been. As his tender heart ached and a surge of anger welled up in in his chest at the sight of their concerned faces, he couldn't think of anyone in the world he wanted to see less than those two at the moment… even the Warden; even _Metro Man_ would have been preferable company than the inconsiderate pair that had hurt his feelings so completely.

Instantly snapping his mouth shut and silencing the sharp words he had been ready to unleash on Number 121, he narrowed his sad brown eyes at them weepily and shook his scaly body with distaste, and then suddenly whipped around to dunk his robotic hands into the soapy dish water with a splash. Snatching up the pot that he had been working at for what seemed like ages, he silently scoured it with a vengeance as he felt the lump in his throat beginning to grow once again.

* * *

As Megamind and Roxanne followed their guide-bot down the hall to the kitchen in search of the sensitive spacefish, they knew, even without discussing the situation with one another, that it wouldn't be easy to win over their tenderhearted companion. Although Megamind had seen Minion's sensitive side before, it was rare for him to have an emotional outburst of this magnitude. His henchman had always been so patient and even tempered, but from time to time the fish would decide he'd had enough of his best friend's devilry and his temper would suddenly blow, leaving the villain feeling remorseful and incredibly sheepish… two feelings that were somewhat unfamiliar to him, and immensely unpleasant.

Despite the fish's forgiving nature, when moments like this came along it took plenty of uncomfortable soul searching and the occasional utterance of the two most dreaded words in Megamind's vocabulary; _I'm sorry_, to convince his friend to let bygones be bygones and to wipe the slate clean. As he watched 121 disappear through the kitchen door ahead of them, he glanced at Roxanne uneasily out of the corner of his eye. Even though he felt terrible for hurting his fishy friend's feelings, especially after all he'd done for them that day, he hoped it wouldn't have to come to that… apologizing in front of Miss Ritchi would absolutely _ruin_ his e-vil image.

Roxanne on the other hand, had never even seen her scaly kidnapper use a single cross word, let alone be there to witness his temper fly off the handle like it had. In fact, he'd always been so polite and congenial when she was around, she didn't even realize he had it in him, and she was shocked that he had been able to silence that entire, riotous room in an instant.

His words still stung when she thought back to the truth they were laden with when he scolded them, and especially when she remembered the sadness that was evident in his sweet brown eyes. She knew without a doubt that they had both earned every angry word Minion had shot at them during his scathing lecture, and she hoped that they would be able to make amends with the little creature, but she was entirely uncertain about how to approach the situation when they confronted him; she had a sneaking feeling that he'd be none too happy to see them…

The instant they walked into the kitchen and noticed the expression on his face when he saw them, their private suspicions suddenly became profound concerns, and when he spun around again furiously to begin working at the mountainous stack of dishes, their concerns became a reality. Minion was still mad… not just mad, he was _livid_.

Roxanne shot a quick, questioning glance at Megamind, who simply looked back at her for a moment out of the corner of his eye and shrugged uncomfortably. It appeared that even _he_ was at a loss about how to begin the process of smoothing things over with his sidekick. Rolling her eyes at the difficulty he seemed to be having with getting the ball rolling in communicating with his life-long friend, the impatient reporter gestured her hands toward the fish as the poor thing worked angrily away at his task with his back to them, and whispered, "Say something!"

Megamind seemed to be growing more uncomfortable by the second as his gaze switched back and forth between Roxanne and his henchman. When she gave him her whispered demand, he simply shrugged again, and throwing his hands in the air, he whispered back, "Why do _I_ have to be the one to start this? _You're_ the one who plastered his dome with potatoes; _you _say something!"

"_What?"_ she hissed almost silently, shooting him a scorching glare, "That was meant for _you_, and you know it! He's your best friend… _you_ need to be the one to get this started! Come on; stop being a wuss, Megamind! Just man up and say something!"

"Man up! Man… _up?_ I'll have you know, it doesn't get any more manly than this fabulous specimen of blue, _god-_like perfection you see standing here right now, and that's a _fact!_"

As they began yet another argument to add to their record-breaking tally for that day, their voices hushed to hissing whispers, Minion could hear their murmurs as they drifted up from behind him. The irritated fish rolled his eyes as he distractedly continued to scour the already surgically clean pot, and strained his auditory sensors in an attempt to pick up a stray phrase or two from their conversation… wouldn't these two _ever_ quit acting like fourth graders?

Number 121 was also paying close attention to the bickering pair as they heatedly argued over who would be the first to break the silence; their last disagreement had turned out to be _so_ much fun, and the bot couldn't help but wonder if another exciting moment was about to spring up. His eyestalk shifted eagerly back and forth between them as their arms gestured wildly in the direction of their dejected friend, who from time to time would cast a sneaky sidelong glance back at them, and then turn away again with a huff in an attempt to pretend he didn't notice their intense debate.

Finally, after several moments of arguing back and forth with the persistently stubborn brunette, Megamind's expression sank into an exasperated glare, and he muttered, "_Ughhh_, you're impossible, you know that? Fine, I'll do it!"

Shooting her a final scowl, which was met by a barely concealed, triumphant grin from the smug reporter, he stepped forward and began to sift through his thoughts to come up with the best way to break the ice with his sidekick _without_ the need of using his two least favorite words. Suddenly feeling like he was under a spotlight, he wished from the blackest part of his heart that Roxanne wasn't standing there observing this terribly humbling moment. Then, clearing his throat, the villain began to awkwardly stumble out, "You know, Minion, I wanted to say that… Well, that whole thing you walked in on in the dining room, it was just… uh… You see, we were trying to… "

But as he unsuccessfully attempted to grasp at the slippery pseudo-apologetic words that continued to elude him, he was suddenly interrupted by a deeply frustrated groan that rose up from behind him. Both Megamind and Minion turned simultaneously to see Roxanne surging forward with a look of impatience directed at the tongue-tied villain.

Passing by her sheepish captor to approach the offended fish, she rolled her eyes and shook her head with an impatient sigh at his rather pathetic attempt to set things straight. She knew she shouldn't be too hard on him; he _was_ a villain after all, and she supposed apologizing wasn't something that would come easy to him… heck, often enough it didn't come easily for her either… but this was getting ridiculous. If she didn't step in, he was going to end up making things far worse than they already were.

Turning to Minion with a sincere expression, the blue-eyed journalist said, "Minion, what he's _trying, _and obviously having a pretty tough time trying to figure out _how_ to say to you right now, is that he's sorry. And I want you to know that I'm sorry too; I really am. I know you probably don't want to hear that right now; and I know you're still mad about what happened in there… and I don't blame you for that, we deserve it! But I hope…" and then turning back to gesture at Megamind with a surprisingly gentle smile, she continued, "_we_ hope, that you can forgive us for ruining your Thanksgiving."

As the sentimental fish listened to her heartfelt apology, the lump in his throat that he had repeatedly swallowed down and refused to allow to gain a foothold on him returned once again, and with a thick, quavering voice, he asked, "Really?"

Roxanne smiled up at him, and responded, "Yeah, really. I'm so sorry, Minion. I wish I could take it all back…" and then jabbing a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the unusually quiet super-villain who stood watching their conversation in the back ground, she added with a wink, "… and so does he!"

Minion's brown eyes followed her lead to his blue friend, and with an uncertain look, he asked again, "Really, Sir?"

Megamind had been watching Roxanne with a sense of awe as she stepped in and so sweetly and easily smoothed things over with his henchman, and with a feeling of relief that he luckily seemed to have had the burden of apologizing himself suddenly lifted from his shoulders. But as his friend and his lovely victim both turned to look at him, waiting expectantly for his reply, he once again began to feel uncomfortably as though he were being observed under a magnifying glass… under normal circumstances, with the city looking on in horror as he unleashed his awesome villainy, he didn't mind being the center of attention a bit; he loved it as a matter of fact. However, being expected to swallow his pride and say he was _sorry_ with the beautiful Roxanne Ritchi looking on was another matter entirely; the very thought of it made him cringe.

But… Minion had put out every effort to give them the best holiday possible, and in a matter of moments all that wonderful work had been reduced to a massive sludgy smear that was currently coating every surface of the dining room. When Megamind looked at that sad little face, he knew that without a doubt, no matter how he felt about those two terrible words, his best friend needed and deserved to hear them.

Swallowing and allowing his green eyes to flick uncomfortably for a moment toward Roxanne a final time, he took a deep breath, and then turning to the fish, he mumbled, "Yes… I do. And I am… you know… sorry, I mean."

Knowing how difficult it must have been for his boss to utter those dreaded words, and in front of present company no less, Minion's worried face softened to a smile, and he said, "You are? Thank you Sir… and you too Miss Ritchi."

"Aw, you're welcome, Minion. So… what do you think? Are you feeling better now?" Roxanne asked with a bright smile as she reached out to put her hand on the robo-fish's furry elbow.

Minion nodded his little body at them both and said, "Yeah, I think so… although I have to admit, I'd be feeling a _whole_ lot better than I am now if I would have been able to finish eating, and if I didn't have to clean up that gigantic mess in there…"

"Ah! Well don't you worry about that, Minion! I've got you covered; you get… the night… _off!_" Megamind interjected proudly, his face alight with an excited grin as he gave his sidekick a friendly punch in the chest.

Minion looked momentarily confused; Megamind _never_ gave him the night off…

"Wait… what? _You've_ got me covered? What do you mean? Are… _you_ going to do the clean-up?"

Megamind looked suddenly horrified at the thought of engaging in such a menial task, and he snapped, "_Certainly_ not! Are you kidding? The brainbots are taking care of it! You get to kick up your fins and relax for the rest of the night, you fantastic fish, you!"

"Oh, Sir… wow! I can't believe this! Thank you!" Minion beamed, and he reached out his gigantic, mechanized arm to drape over his boss' shoulder with a congenial squeeze that lifted his black-booted feet from the floor; the fish's sweet, scaly face glowing with a bright and happy smile.

As Number 121 bounced excitedly through the air in a circle around its Daddy and his Number One Fish, Roxanne giggled at the incredibly embarrassed expression on Megamind's face as he attempted to squirm his way out of his henchman's vice-like grip.

"Alright… Minion! Okay; it's okay! You can… let go… now… Okay-Minion-let-_GO!_" he struggled to say in a hoarse groan as he could feel all of the air being squeezed out of his lungs.

"Oh, right… Hehe! Sorry Sir!" the fish answered in an instant, and then dropped his master back to the floor and watched him stumble away and glare at him indignantly as he smoothed and straightened his rumpled suit and repositioned his cape.

When Roxanne was finally able to catch her breath after her burst of laughter at Megamind's expense, she wiped her eyes and said, "Minion, as far as you not being able to finish your dinner, I'm afraid there's really nothing left of all that food in the dining room… do you have anything left in reserve here in the kitchen?"

"No," Minion answered, his scaly brows furrowing a bit and a tiny frown creeping across his face. "I brought it all to the dining room for you guys; I thought it would make a nice presentation to bring in all those platters full of food… like you'd see in a magazine or something, you know? Since we were having you here with us this time I wanted to make it special…"

Roxanne's heart ached for a moment when she head the remaining glimmer of disappointment in his voice, but recovering quickly and putting on her most hopeful smile, she said, "Oh… well, you know, I do _distinctly_ remember someone mentioning pumpkin pie… with whipped cream? I _know_ we didn't toss that around during that fiasco, so you must have it in here somewhere."

Minion's eyes instantly brightened at the mention of desert, and he quickly burst out, "Yes! You're right, I do; I'd forgotten all about it! Great idea, Miss Ritchi! Okay, you two go sit down and I'll go…"

"Oooooh, no you don't; _you_ go sit down and _we'll_ get it for you. Don't you remember what Megamind said? You get to kick up your fins and relax the rest of the night; it's our turn to take care of you, Minion. You deserve this."

The instant Roxanne offered her admittedly meager culinary skills in place of Minion's, Megamind snorted a disbelieving laugh and quipped smugly, "Oh, now this should be interesting. The woman who admits she doesn't know how to cook is going to prepare our desert for us? HA! I can't _wait_ to see how _this_ turns out!"

"Oh shut up! Besides, Minion's already done all the work, the only thing that needs to be done is to fix up the whipped cream; there's no cooking involved… right?" Roxanne commented as she turned a questioning eye to their aquatic caterer. She honestly wasn't sure what went into the process; she had an idea of course, but her mother had never been much of a cook so she'd never seen it done growing up, and the only experience _she'd_ ever had in preparing whipped cream was pushing the nozzle on the canned version that she occasionally picked up from the grocery store.

Minion smiled and answered, "Nope, no cooking needed, Miss Ritchi. Everything's ready to go; you just need to whip up the cream… but, are you _sure_ you don't want me to…"

"No way! You sit down…" answered the determined reporter in a no nonsense tone without even allowing the uncertain fish to finish.

"And you…" she continued as she reached out to grab Megamind's wrist and began pulling him along behind her, "…are helping me! I said _we _were going to take care of him, together; not just _me_."

After Roxanne's inquiry about "cooking" the whipped cream, what little confidence her captor had in her culinary abilities had taken a severe nose dive, and he tended to be _quite_ particular when it came to the way his holiday courses were prepared. With a doubtful scowl, the skeptical villain interjected, "I don't know... I think it might be a good idea to let Minion go ahead and…"

"Oh knock it off! It's not _rocket science…_ and even if it was rocket science, I've got the guy who's supposed to be the smartest man on the planet here working on it with me, so I think we've got it covered. Come on, it's just _whipped cream_, Megamind! How hard can it be?"

* * *

After a series or trial and error and plenty of bickering back and forth between villain and victim about the _proper_ way to complete the preparation for their desert, Minion was forced once again to step in and referee the situation, giving instruction where needed to make sure the job was done the right way. Luckily, their arguing tended to be more good-natured this time around, and only once did the opposing pair show any sign of possibly losing their tempers.

The patient fish actually found himself biting back laughter several times as he listened to their banter and taught them how to whip the fluffy white topping. In fact, as he sat back and watched his best friend and their favorite abductee puttering around the kitchen and working surprisingly well together, a warm glow began to well up in his heart. That feeling of family that Minion had been longing for suddenly seemed to be all around him, immersing him as he watched Megamind and Miss Ritchi working side by side, talking and even laughing together; and as he smiled to himself, he couldn't help but wish deep down that somehow, things could stay like this forever.

In the end, with a little help from their fishy friend, the three sat down to a desert fit for kings; two of the most perfect pumpkin pies Roxanne had ever laid eyes on and a heaping bowl of fluffy, snowy white cream to go along with them. As the evening wore on, the reporter marveled at the fact that she was actually _enjoying_ herself; how could she possibly be having such a good time with the two baddest boys in town, especially after the way their day had started out to be such a disaster? She smiled as she thought about the irony. It seemed impossible to imagine that spending time with those two trouble makers could be so much fun… but no matter how impossible it seemed; fun is _exactly_ what it was.

After polishing off a shockingly large portion of desert, engaging in a round of surprisingly enjoyable and thought provoking conversation with her kidnappers, and continuously stopping the proceedings to gently shoo Number 121 from making itself comfortable in her lap once again, the brunette realized that it was quite late. The excitement of the day was suddenly taking its toll, and she was more than ready to head home… but that wasn't going to happen; Megamind still had plans for her. Ah well, best to just plow through the whole thing and get it over with…

With a deep feeling of reluctance, Roxanne turned to look at her blue host as he contentedly sat across from her at the table, and with a sigh, she said, "Well Megamind, I guess it's about time we wrap this up, don't you think? And you still have that plan waiting… I suppose you'll probably want to be getting on with that…"

At her announcement that it was high time to move on ahead to his pre-arranged scheme, Megamind suddenly stopped in the midst of lifting his fork to his mouth and looked up at her, an introspective expression beginning to furrow his brows as he sat up a little straighter and pursed his lips thoughtfully.

_Oh great, NOW what's he cooking up in that giant brain of his_, she thought when she recognized the telltale signs of the genius' intellectual wheels spinning to churn out a new plan. She had seen it many times before; those calculating looks usually meant his ideas were suddenly evolving at the last minute to step up the challenge for Metro Man, and to include some new level of "terror" for her… neither scenario tended to bode well for anyone involved.

As she watched him sit and think silently to himself, she began to feel herself to becoming irritated again. Although she wanted nothing more than to simply say good night to the devilish duo and go home to wash away the uncomfortable left-overs of their food fight and head for bed, she had already resigned herself to sitting through the annoying rigmarole he had in store for her. Despite feeling hard pressed to endure her tedious date with doom, she had known what was ahead of her from early on and had emotionally prepared herself to push on through and deal with it; but just barely. The thought of _another_ surprise crammed into this already shocking, whirlwind of a day, however, was simply too much, and she could feel herself beginning to lose her grip on her temper at the very idea.

Minion sat back and watched as his companions suddenly withdrew into themselves and silently observed one another, obviously deep in thought, and as he did, the bright and happy smile that he'd been unable to hold back throughout their desert slowly began to fade. He recognized the expressions on both faces; Megamind wore a contemplative look that usually went along with pondering how to take his plans up to the next level of terror, and Roxanne one of frustration that was moving dangerously close to another temperamental outburst as she watched him cycle through his familiar intellectual process.

The poor fish could feel the tension beginning to ripple through the air and groaned to himself inwardly; it was beginning to look as though their evening was about to end very badly, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of disappointment at the prospect, especially after they'd been able to turn things around so nicely and they were finally having such a good time…

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**We're almost there… **_**so**_** close to the finish of this story, I can almost reach out and touch it! Please, **_**please**_** be sure to keep your eyes out for the happy ending I promised would come… sooner or later!**

**Thanks again to each and every one of you for so faithfully coming back to follow this story; you… are… the **_**BEST!**_** And if you enjoyed this chapter, I'd really **_**love**_** to hear from you! Feedback from all my fellow Mega-fans is what makes writing fun and worthwhile, so please consider leaving me a quick review to brighten up my week! **

**Thank you, **_**thank you**_**, and thank you again!  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**Oh my gosh I did it. I actually finished this story! WOOHOO! Didn't think it would ever happen, but it's all done! Thanks a **_**million**_** times for staying with me this whole, long time my friends; you all deserve a medal for your patience in all the delays between updates, and even more for reading such a seasonal story even when the season is long, LONG past.**

**I hope so much that you'll enjoy the conclusion to their adventure, and hey! Be sure to read the author's notes at the end… I've got a surprise for ya! ;)**

* * *

After what seemed like ages, Megamind appeared to have come to a decision. Assuming a pensive expression as he settled his eyes intently on his captive, the villain took a deep breath, and said in a serious tone, "Roxanne, it occurs to me that… well, today has been _incredibly_ exhausting for everyone here; and of course, as you know, the Monday following Thanksgiving is always set aside for my most elaborate plan of the year, my coup de gras, if you will. Under the circumstances, I've decided that it would be best to postpone our plan for tonight; the challenge I have laid out this year is going to be _particularly_ terrifying, and I expect you to be fresh, and ready to be scared out of your wits when Minion comes bright and early on Monday morning to fetch you."

It took a moment for Roxanne to sift her way through Megamind's solemn announcement to actually begin to grasp what he was saying, and even when she did, she found herself having a hard time believing what she thought she'd just heard… it almost sounded as though he was about to cancel the Turkey of Terror and simply send her home; no chair, no rope, no conveyor belt leading to certain destruction, just a happy and restful night following the most interesting Thanksgiving she'd ever had.

But no; there was no _way_ the man who had pestered her relentlessly for years would cut her a break like that… was there?

Apparently, her confusion was evident in her blank expression, because as he watched her ruminate what he had just said, the barest hint of a smile began to tug at the corner of his mouth and his serious green eyes suddenly began to twinkle with amusement. After another moment of watching her stare at him in intense, confused silence, he chuckled, and with a quiet but lighthearted tone, he continued on to say, "Yes, yes; believe it or not, it means exactly what it sounds like, my dear. I'm giving you the night off; you can go home."

Roxanne's blue eyes shot wide at his pronouncement of her freedom for the evening, and she instantly glanced at Minion as though seeking confirmation that she was hearing him correctly. When her eyes met his, he appeared to be just as astonished as she was and simply shrugged his furry shoulders; his friend had been behaving _so_ strangely that day; there was absolutely no telling what he was going to do next. At that point, the scaly simian had decided to give up trying to figure out what his boss was up to, and simply go along for the surprising ride.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go on… get out of here before I change my mind!" Megamind quipped with a sideways smile as he waved an arm toward the door, his brow arched to emphasize the vibrantly mischievous spirit he found himself in at the moment. He couldn't get over how unbelievably _good_ it felt to see her eyes light up at his kind gesture… maybe being a good guy every now and then wasn't so bad after all.

The brunette's confused expression broke into a gloriously radiant smile, and as she stood up from her chair, she said, "Megamind, I wasn't expecting this at all! I can't believe it! Wow, thank…"

"No! Stop!" the blue devil burst in fiercely as he suddenly held up a hand to silence her. "Now _don't_ get the wrong idea. I'm _not_ doing this to be nice… far from it, Miss Ritchi! I expect you to be the _perfect_ victim on Monday; I want to see you screaming up a storm and really showing your absolute terror when… well, I can't ruin it by giving out spoilers; you'll just have to wait and see!"

"Ahh, right." she responded with a crooked smile and a nod. "Well, we'll see how it goes, Spacey. And in order to get me to scream for you, you're _reeeeally_ gonna have to impress me, you know…"

Megamind's eyes widened imperceptively at her somewhat promising response; she hadn't come right out and said _no_ to the scream he'd been trying to get out of her for years. Maybe there actually _was_ some hope of hearing that sound of complete terror that he'd daydreamed of eliciting from her countless times!

Turning to his sidekick and leaning closer so she couldn't hear, the blue schemer whispered excitedly, "Did you _hear_ that, Minion? Code: we need work on coming up with something _significantly_ more e-vil than our standard issue plan for Monday! Something _really_ sinister and horrifying!"

"What do you have in mind, Sir?" the curious fish whispered back as he glanced over at the smiling reporter.

"I have _NO_ idea! But we'll figure it out, Filet Mignon!"

Roxanne stood back and watched her captors engaged in yet another hushed conference; it was obvious they were whispering about her, but this time, she didn't mind a bit. In fact, it struck her as funny, almost _cute_ to see those two scoundrels excitedly making plans for her, and she found herself becoming quite curious about what they would have waiting for her when she woke up on Monday morning.

Finally, with a shake of her head and quiet giggle, the tired reporter broke in and said, "Uh, hey… I hate to interrupt, but I'm fading pretty quickly here. Any chance I could catch a ride back to my apartment so I can get started on saving up my strength for that scheme you've got planned for me?"

"_Min_-ion! Attend to Miss Ritchi's ride home, will you? And, no need for the knock out spray; until she's safely deposited back in her apartment, she's still our guest. She can use my cape again, just to make sure we keep our secrets safe…" Then turning to his lovely guest as he unclasped his cape and held it out to his sidekick, he added "No offense; you understand…"

"No, it's okay; I get it. Do whatever you gotta do… I'm just glad I don't have to deal with that musty spray and the smelly bag." she interjected smilingly. Then turning to her ride home, she said with deep sincerity in her voice, "Minion, thanks for everything! You were a dear the whole time."

She smiled at the fish a moment longer, and then unexpectedly threw her arms around him, hugging his mechanical body tightly.

Minion was completely taken aback by her shocking show of affection; he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do with their pretty captive's arms wrapped tightly around him like that. He stood still for a moment, looking down at her in a state of shock, and then slowly looked over at his boss with a perplexed, but incredibly pleased expression developing on his scaly face. Rather than offering any kind of support to his confused sidekick, Megamind glowered back at him jealously. Why was the _fish_ the one who was lucky enough to get a hug instead of him?

After what seemed like an eternity to Megamind, and not _nearly_ long enough for Minion, Roxanne let go of the furry robo-fish, and said, "Well, let's hit the road. If you don't get me out of here soon you wouldn't need to use the knock out spray even if you wanted to; I'm going to end up falling asleep right here."

"Hurry up and take her home, Minion. We can't have her _passing_ out in the middle of the Lair." mumbled the villain with a pout as he dejectedly began to turn away, but his departure was stopped short by the feeling of a feminine hand wrapping gently around his wrist, something he had become delightfully familiar with during the course of their eventful day.

"Hey, wait a minute. I… I just wanted to say thank you to you too, Megamind. This has been, without a doubt, the most surprising, annoying, infuriating, crazy, and _wonderful_ Thanksgiving I've ever had. I'm _glad_ you showed up to kidnap me. I can't imagine having more fun with anyone than I did with you two clowns today."

Now it was Megamind's turn to look confused; it didn't even begin to seem _remotely_ possible that Roxanne Ritchi would ever say such beautiful words to _him_…

It took a second or two for him to catch his breath after the realization sunk in that this was really happening, that he wasn't imagining this moment… in spite of everything; all their petty squabbling and his stubborn pride, it seemed that she might have actually _enjoyed_ spending time with him. The skeptical villain still had a hard time accepting her admission, however. It simply seemed too good to be true.

Narrowing his eyes at her doubtfully, he couldn't help but reply in a disbelieving tone, "But, you can't be serious! What about Goody Two Shoes?"

"Pffft! Are you kidding? You have _noooo_ idea what holidays are like at the Scott's place. Believe it or not, you actually did me a favor! No, honestly, I really did have much more fun being here with you today."

When she finished speaking, her expression began to change. Her bright, sapphire eyes softened as she peered at him through the dark sweep of lashes that adorned them, and an affectionate smile began to settle on her lips, making the villain's cold, dark heart radiate with a glowing warmth that he couldn't remember _ever_ having felt so strongly before. She looked at him like that a moment longer, and then moved in close to kiss him on the cheek.

Rather than planting a quick, gratuitous peck on him and then backing off in a hurry, she leaned into him and placed a hand on his chest, allowing her lips to tarry against him for a moment. The instant her kiss found his cheek, the warm glow that had sprung up when she gazed at him with those alluring blue eyes burst into a full blown inferno that threatened to overload all of his intellectual circuits… as his heart began to gallop wildly away in his chest, the quick talking evil genius suddenly found himself completely speechless.

When Minion had watched her reaching out to stop his boss so she could thank him, he'd noticed that she had an unusual expression on her face; one that he'd never seen her give the villain before. Although he found it rather odd, he didn't give it much thought and simply assumed that she was just trying to be nice after he had allowed her to stay and then gave her a pass from forced participation in his surprise holiday plan. But when the beautiful reporter leaned in close and planted that kiss on him, Minion was blown away.

His brown eyes couldn't have opened any further if he tried as he gawked at the pair in front of him. It appeared that Megamind was even more astonished than he was; the typically shrewd and calculating face of his friend had suddenly gone completely blank as he stared silently ahead, and the beginnings of a ridiculously sappy smile the likes of which the spacefish had never seen tugged at the corner of his mouth while those bright green eyes vacantly popped open wide.

_Oooooh… my… gosh, I did NOT see that coming! _The flabbergasted fish thought to himself with jaws agape, but as he watched the pair who had been squabbling all afternoon long cling to each other for that quick moment in time, a sentimental spark began to glimmer deep in his heart. That wonderful feeling of family that had captivated him earlier suddenly came flooding back and filled him once again. Somehow, as strange as it was, seeing the two of them together like that just seemed… _right_.

The magical moment passed far too quickly. Seconds later, Roxanne pulled away from her serial kidnapper with a sweet and sincere smile. As her grasp slipped gently down his wrist to hold his hand instead, she said to him one more time, "Thank you, Megamind."

Even though her thank-you's had all been said and the feeling of the kiss she had left on his cheek was already beginning to fade, neither one of the pair was able to look away from the other. Metro City's most fearsome villain and the victim he had chosen over every other woman in the city continued to gaze at each other, blue eyes locked spellbindingly on green as the spacefish and the curious cyborg looked on.

After a few moments, things began to become rather awkward for their aquatic companion as he uncomfortably stood in the background and waited for them to break eye contact. Shockingly, they didn't seem even the slightest bit inclined to do so however, and Minion finally decided it was best to take it upon himself to gently snap the captivated duo back to reality.

Clearing his throat loudly to break the short stretch of awkward silence, the piscean reached out to place a metal hand on Roxanne's shoulder, and said haltingly, "Um, Miss Ritchi, are you… uh… ready to get going?"

"Oh… yeah, I'm ready Minion. Let's go." she answered as she flicked her eyes at him for a split second, and then turning immediately back to Megamind to look at him smilingly one last time, she added, "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you Monday. And remember, you're gonna have to impress me…"

"Oh… uh, yes! Right! Absolutely; I _guarantee_ you won't be disappointed! Terrifying doesn't even _begin_ to describe the horrors I have planned for you the next time we meet!" he answered, his eyes flickering to life again as he attempted to recapture some semblance of wickedness after the sappy display he had embarrassingly put on.

"Hmmmm… yeah, we'll see." the lovely journalist quipped skeptically with one of her famously crooked smirks, and then giving his hand a final squeeze, she let go and turned to Minion, ready to be shrouded in the sumptuously silky cape and returned home, freed from the peril that had been promised her thanks to an astonishing glimpse of the hidden kindness of the Master of all Villainy; the man whose heart was _supposed_ to evil, and black to the core.

* * *

Later that same night, safely returned to the comfort of her apartment, Roxanne lay in her bed, thinking. When she'd finally turned in half an hour earlier, she'd felt as though she could melt right into the cushy fibers of her mattress… she couldn't remember _ever_ feeling this tired, not even after her captor's most elaborate plans. No matter how hard she tried, however, she simply couldn't fall asleep. Despite the exhaustion that had crept through her and settled all the way to the center of her bones after the trying and emotionally confusing day she'd spent with her abductor, her mind was far too busy to settle in for the night.

She pulled her comforter cozily up to her chin as she lay in her darkened room, staring at the reflection of the city lights that illuminated her shadowy ceiling and listening to the November rain patter against her window. As she lay there, her mind drifted from one memory to another of the strange day she'd spent with Megamind. Thinking of each of the crazy circumstances that had been strung together to form the most unusual Thanksgiving she'd ever experienced, she found herself being swept away for another ride on the emotional roller coaster that had ruled the bulk of her holiday.

Images of one scene after another of the infuriating villain tumbled through her mind… his smug blue face sneering triumphantly down at her as he whipped the bag away from her head when their adventure first began, the memory of his stubborn refusal to listen to her, and his juvenile tit-for-tat mentality as he insisted on exacting reh-vange for her current favorite insult annoyed her to the point of making her blood boil all over again as she lay in the darkness… she even caught herself clenching her teeth in irritation as those thoughts materialized in her mind.

Worst of all was the memory of the moment when she'd realized how deep his plotting against her that day had actually gone; immersing herself in the recollection of that instant brought the surprising hurt that she'd felt immediately back to her mind. It seemed amazing to her that she could be so deeply affected by anything he did; but nevertheless, the pain she'd felt had been all too real.

But there were other memories from that day to go along with the unhappy ones; memories that made her heart soar as she lay swaddled in her blankets with her head propped comfortably on her pillow. The fleeting glances she'd caught him giving her as the day wore on, his surprising thoughtfulness in allowing her to be shrouded in his cape rather than suffering through another headache inducing blast of knock-out spray, and that moment that he'd gallantly stepped in to ward off the overprotective pack of brainbots all brought a happy smile to her face as she mulled those images over again in her mind.

She even found herself giggling out loud as she relived their immature food fight, and felt a surprisingly warm rush at the memory of the two of them sitting together on the floor in the midst of the aftermath of their brawl with her hand gently clinging to his arm… the feeling of sitting so close to him with her hands wrapped around him like that had made her heart race beyond belief as they huddled in the only clean spot in the room, and it had taken an extreme effort on her part not to let that moment of weakness show.

But the memory that seemed to be affecting her most was the thought of the final minutes she'd spent with him that evening when she thanked him with the kiss she left on his cheek. That kiss had surprised her just as much as it had him… as she said her goodbyes and offered her gratitude for the overall unbelievably enjoyable day they'd spent together, she was suddenly engulfed by the overwhelming urge to plant one on him.

The thought had crossed her mind many times before, but she had always immediately passed it off as nothing more than a fit of temporary insanity brought on by his undeniable charm and that low, velvety voice he knew how to expertly work in his favor, and instantly shoved it aside with another sarcastic jab at his expense as though it had never happened… mostly to prove to _herself _that she wasn't the least bit attracted to him. But not this time; this time she'd been completely caught up in the moment, and it astonished her how easily she had given in to the temptation to lean in to give him that kiss, and even more surprised at the way it made her heart flutter… and the way her heart continued to flutter as she lay there thinking about him.

With that in mind, her smile grew wider as she rolled over to curl up snugly on her side. As she nestled comfortably into her blankets, she reached out and wrapped her arm tightly around a pillow to hug it close, and imagined for a split second what it would be like to wrap her arms around _him_ like that. She knew it was crazy to allow herself to think of her kidnapper in such a romantic way, but there was no way he'd ever find out. Besides, at that moment, as her heart swelled with an incredible surge of affection for the one man who drove her crazier, but also had the ability to make her heart skip a beat more easily than anyone else she knew, she really didn't care.

As she finally felt herself beginning to drift peacefully off to sleep and sensed the weight of all the mishaps she'd been through with the dastardly duo that day slipping away, her mind settled on one last memory. She'd told him that evening when she said goodbye that despite the chaos and insanity that went along with the time they'd spent together, this had been the most wonderful Thanksgiving she'd ever had… and she was right.

Without a doubt, this had been the best of holidays, and one tiny thought glimmered in the back of her mind as the peaceful darkness of sleep overtook her at last… she hoped that this wasn't just a one-time event. Of course she may feel very differently about it in the morning, but in the deepest part of her heart, she couldn't help but hope that one of these days soon, Megamind would stop by to surprise her like that again. In fact, she found herself wishing that there would be _many_ more chances to be swept away for infuriating… and _wonderful… _holiday adventures with her repeat kidnapper at Evil Lair, much like the one she had today; and with Christmas and the New Year coming just around the corner, there was a darn good chance that her wish might just come true.

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**Voila'! It's done! (I still can't believe I finally finished! LOL!)**

**Oh, but wait… I'll bet you're wondering what Megamind is thinking about the two of them spending their Turkey Day together now that it's all over, and 121; I'll bet you're curious about that too…**

**Well guess what? Even though I said it I would have it finished with this update, SURPRISE! Again, the story took over and it turned out to be far too long for one chapter, so I cheated. There's an **_**epilogue**_** coming very soon that will explain everything for you! Like I said, the whole story is done; I already have the next update all ready to go; it'll be uploaded within the next couple of days. Please come back to find out what happens!**

**And please tell me how you liked the **_**unofficial**_** ending to the story! I'm dying to hear from all of you, I'd love so much to know if you've enjoyed this wild little ride our wicked duo and their favorite reporter have taken us on. So please, be kind and leave me a review; let me know if it gave you a smile to brighten up your day. It would absolutely make my week!**

**Thank you so much, and please remember to look for the epilogue! I think you'll be glad you did! **


	14. Chapter 14 Epilogue

**This time I really mean it; it's finished! :)**

**Many thank you's and plenty of extra credit points to everyone who has come back to read the epilogue; which is a **_**very **_**important part of the story, might I add! This tale just can't be complete without finding out what happens with our favorite villain and his sidekick, and that sassy little bot we've grown rather attached to as the story has unfolded.**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

When Minion arrived back at the Lair after his quick stint of chauffeur duty for Miss Ritchi, he immediately trucked his way to the control room, expecting Megamind to already be hard at work strategizing the wicked scheme he had slated for Monday. The sneaky villain had been very clear in his whispered insistence that this new plan be far more evil than their usual, run of the mill sort of schemes, so the faithful fish assumed his boss had made it his top priority and would already be hard at work dreaming up the most abominable contraption Metro City had ever seen.

When he hurried through the control room door however, he found it completely empty; nothing but darkness and shadows, and Megamind's empty chair facing the bank of monitors as they continued to play their heart-warming but cliché scenes of holiday cheer.

After a moment of sudden shock at finding their planning table devoid of evil blueprints or the floor lacking a certain blue super villain as he paced back and forth, deep in nefarious thought, he turned quickly to make his way through the Lair and track him down. Minion's scaly brow furrowed a bit as he walked along and thought about the utter strangeness of his friend's behavior that day. Now he was beginning to get a little worried; Megamind forgoing the opportunity to work through the night to come up with the most frightening plan he'd ever created? And especially after Miss Ritchi had challenged him like that? Something _had_ to be wrong… this was not like his boss _at all_.

_Maybe he's getting sick?_ thought Minion as he reached the kitchen and peeked around the frame of the door to find it empty. _Or maybe he's just been working too hard… yeah, that might just be it. That would explain him sitting out his prime work hours like this, especially after she practically promised him she'd scream for him. Well, that she MIGHT scream for him._

As Minion lumbered along the passage and checked all the usual places, he continued to brainstorm possible reasons for his ward's odd behavior that day, but kept coming up empty handed; nothing really seemed to fit. After he'd thought about it, he realized that the working too hard idea was a flop; although that might explain his lack of activity after Miss Ritchi left, it certainly didn't square with him whisking her away on their weekend off to sit through that brand new plan that he'd just dreamed up on the fly. Besides, this was Megamind. He didn't even believe there _was_ such a thing as working too hard; that couldn't possibly be it.

After checking various storage spaces, labs, and work rooms, all with no luck, the spacefish was running out of places to look, and out of ideas to explain his boss' antics. Beginning to feel frustrated and more concerned than ever, he finally decided to check the only two places he hadn't yet looked, and all because they seemed the least likely places to find him; his bed, and the dining room.

It would be worrisome indeed to find the busy villain in bed at eleven o'clock at night, and a sure sign that something was _very_ wrong. Being the criminal mastermind that he was, Megamind's intellectual machinations were constantly running in overdrive, and that, combined with his extreme tendency toward hyper-activity left him needing far less sleep than most people, including Minion. It was common for the spacefish to hit a wall in the wee hours of the morning as he struggled to keep pace with his boss, and literally fall asleep on his robotic feet while his friend fervently labored on with the creation of his latest wicked schemes.

And the dining room; the blue genius had never been overly fond of the extravagantly appointed room that Minion loved so much. Although he had reluctantly gone along with his sidekick's ideas about decorating the place, he had routinely grumbled about it being far too similar to something that might be found in one of his goody-goody opponent's ridiculously opulent homes and hideouts. The only times he could willingly be found within the walls of the elegant room were Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then only for the sake of humoring his sentimental sidekick.

As he trudged along toward the scene of the onslaught that had almost ruined their entire holiday, Minion decided that if his friend wasn't in one of those two unlikely places, he'd have to assume that he'd changed his mind yet again, and was currently on his way to pick up Miss Ritchi and continue on with his plan after all. _If that's the case,_ Minion thought with more than a little frustration as he pondered the idea, _he can just count me out this time. Ugghhh, this whole mess has been SO confusing… I'm done! I'm going to bed!_

Reaching the door to the dining room, Minion stopped just outside and took a deep, steadying breath, dreading to walk in and see the horrific aftermath of the Thanksgiving battle that certainly must still be spread across the room. Despite his boss' promise that the brainbots would take care of it, the flighty cyborgs had the attention span of a four year old, and it didn't take much to distract them and pull them away from any task they'd been given, _especially_ if it involved something boring and tedious, like cleaning.

But when the spacefish stepped through the doorway and pulled aside the swag of the curtain that immediately obstructed his view, he was astonished to see an industrious stream of brainbots buzzing back and forth from one corner to another, focusing intently on completing the last remaining details of clean-up in an almost spotless room. And what seemed nearly as surprising to the fish as seeing the brainbots laboring so diligently at their chore was the sight of Megamind, sitting at the table with Number 121 perched contentedly on his lap as he scrubbed meticulously away at the bot's spindly arms and filthy dome.

"Sir, what are you _doing_? I've been looking all over for you! I thought you'd be in the control room planning for Monday morning…"

Megamind looked up from his task, and exuberantly responded with an evil chuckle thrown in for emphasis, "Oh, we have all weekend to take care of that, Minion. Not to worry… I have it all under control. I already have a few _wickedly_ frightening ideas to pick from that are sure to scare the pencil skirt right off our lovely Miss Ritchi!"

The instant those words left his mouth, Megamind realized how awkwardly loaded that particular expression sounded; especially in light of the slightly romantic undertones some of his interactions with his captive had been laced with that day. Hoping his fishy sidekick hadn't noticed, he cleared his throat loudly and immediately pushed on ahead to change the subject.

"But since we have _plenty_ of time to get to work on that, I wanted to take a moment to clean up our little friend here!"

Minion's lip curled as his eyes dropped to the smug and grubby little cyborg that sat nestled in its master's lap. He was still furious with the horribly behaved bot; in his opinion, Number 121 had been largely responsible for the bad behavior its brothers had fallen into that day, and the spacefish would have liked nothing better than to see the horribly naughty creature spend the next week sitting inactive in storage; just as all the bots had been promised as a consequence for continuing their bad behavior. But seeing Megamind lavish the mechanized instigator with so much individual attention while the others worked away at cleaning up the mess he knew deep down that 121 had helped initiate was just too much.

Barely managing to keep the irritation out of his voice, the fish ventured to ask, "Sir, don't you think our "_little friend_" should be over there helping the rest of the bots clean? After all, it did play a pretty big role in _making_ that mess…"

"Oh no, I couldn't do that! Look at it… it's _filthy_! Much more dirty than the other brainbots! And besides, this little fellow has shown itself to be completely and unwaveringly loyal. I gave it an important task, and it stuck to it throughout that entire ordeal without becoming distracted…" and then the villain turned back to his mechanical pet, and cooed affectionately, "Isn't that right? You listened to daddy like a good little bot! Yes, you did!"

As Megamind prattled on, producing a dramatic eye-roll from his best friend, the happy cyborg became more and more excited by the attention it was receiving from its creator. Despite all of the impressive qualities that seemed to set Number 121 apart from its counterparts, it was still a brainbot, and therefore subject to many of the same faults and weaknesses as its brothers; _especially_ biting.

Completely forgetting itself in the joy of the moment, the giddy bot suddenly opened its steely jaws and clamped them back together with a snap, narrowly missing the surprised villain's fingertips by a hair's breadth.

"_There!_ You see, Sir? It's a _terrible_ little turd and it needs to go into mothballs… right _now!_"

"_Min_-ion! _Don't_ call it that!" Megamind barked back as he focused an offended glare on the fish and encircled the cyborg with his arms defensively. "All it needs is a little more training to work out all those minor kinks in its programming."

Then looking down at the creature as it hunkered guiltily in his lap, he shook his finger at it and said in a scolding tone, "Ah, ah, ah… no biting! No, _no!"_

Minion huffed in exasperation at Megamind's sudden protectiveness over the annoying little bot. It was obvious that the villain had decided to set his sights on the cyborg as a favorite even though it seemed crystal clear to _him_ that preferential treatment like that would do nothing more than spoil the badly behaved creature. But once his boss' mind was made up, it was nearly impossible to convince him to see things differently. All the fish could hope for at this point was that his friend hadn't become so attached to the cyborg, he would decide to reinforce its bad behavior by bestowing it with a name… the highest honor any brainbot could receive from its creator.

As the piscean sat and stewed, glowering at the bot that gazed complacently back at him with a decidedly self-satisfied expression in its red eye, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted when his boss pronounced thoughtfully, "You know, Minion; I think it's going to take a little more elbow grease to get this fellow cleaned up than I anticipated. Look at the way these potatoes have worked their way into the gears and joints here… I think I'm going to have to detach its arms completely to make sure the job gets done right."

"Well, why don't we just take it into the lab and shut it down for a while so we can give it a good scrubbing?" Minion interjected, seeing a possible back door to getting the naughty bot taken out of commission for at least a little while.

"No, I'm _not_ shutting it down, Minion! Like I said, this one deserves my thanks… Ozzy will do just fine bobbing around here without its arms for a little while…"

Minion cringed. _Oh no, did I just hear what I thought I heard?_

"Um… Ozzy, Sir?"

"Yes… _that's_ what I've decided to call it. It _is_ a perfect name for it after all; not only would our new favorite be named after the greatest rock legend of all time, but the name fits it like a charm, what with its penchant for biting and all. The real Ozzy was famous for doing just that same thing! There couldn't _possibly_ be a namesake with a more diabolically wicked reputation for our friend here! Well, what do you think, little guy? How do you like your new name?"

As the spacefish shook his body in annoyance and groaned in the background, the overjoyed brainbot turned an excited eye at its master and bowged its happy acceptance of the new name that it had been hoping and longing to receive. And not just any name, but THE name… the one it had dreamed of countless times before. No brainbot could _ever_ be happier.

"And while I'm at it," Megamind continued without seeming to notice his sidekick's peevish reaction, "there are a few modifications to its body-type that I'm considering. I noticed earlier today when Roxanne was trying to pet it, these damn _spikes_ kept getting in the way. It really doesn't need them anymore. I intend on keeping this one quite close from here on out; with the proper planning and under the right conditions, it could _drastically _enhance my evil image to have a brainbot constantly hovering close at hand… but, I can see how these spikes could cause a problem. So! I've decided to give Ozzy a facelift of sorts. That's right, no more spikes for you, my menacing little cyborg!"

As Minion watched the evil genius reclining in the plush, high backed chair, methodically stroking the dome of his mechanical pet as anyone else would stroke a cat with a scheming smirk beginning to tug at his lips as he considered the possibilities of somehow enhancing his "evil image", he was suddenly struck with a flashback of Blofeld from an old James Bond film. When he realized exactly what his boss had in mind, the irritated expression that had been evident on the fish's face shifted into a grimace that practically screamed "_you've GOT to be kidding me_" as he peered at the overly imaginative villain through his scaly brows, and his toothy jaw hung slack with disbelief.

Finding himself completely at a loss for words at this new development in his friend's plot for intimidation of the masses and city-wide domination, all the flabbergasted fish managed to say was, "Ooo-_kaaaaaaaaay…"_

He sat silently for a moment, the dumbfounded expression frozen on his face as he observed Megamind quietly mulling through his own private thoughts. He could practically see for himself the visions that must certainly be tumbling through the villain's mind; visions that included images of himself striking fear into the hearts of the populace with his odd little pet in its new, streamlined body-type perched intimidatingly in his lap, adding a little _oomph_ to his evil image. What Minion _couldn't_ see however, was the fact that his boss was _also_ imagining the delightful possibility of Miss Ritchi holding Ozzy again someday, just as she had done earlier, but without the inconvenience of those "damn spikes" getting in her way as she stroked its dome affectionately.

Finally, with an irritated sigh, Minion decided to change the subject. It was obvious that Ozzy was going to be a permanent fixture in the control room from that moment on, always getting in the way and annoying the spacefish beyond belief; and there was nothing he could say that would change his best friend's mind. As painfully frustrating as it was to imagine it, he might as well get used to it.

Clearing his throat, the aquatic creature asked, "So, uh… wow. That was quite a day, wasn't it, Sir?"

Roused from his happy contemplations, Megamind glanced up at his sidekick and responded, "Oh yes, it was; _quite _a day! In fact, it turned out to be one of the most surprising days I think I've ever had."

"_Pffft!_ Surprising doesn't even _begin_ to cover it! But, thank goodness it's all over now, right?" Minion continued with a laugh as he thought back to the all the confusion that had ruled the roost at Evil Lair over the past twelve hours.

At his sidekick's admission of relief that the day they'd spent with their victim had finally drawn to an end, Megamind's congenial smile suddenly sank into a scowl. Oddly enough, he didn't like the idea of listening to his sidekick complaining about her presence there with them there that day; not one little bit.

"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.

Minion shrugged. "Well, I don't know; it's just good to get things back to normal around here I guess. I mean, it was really wonderful having Miss Ritchi here to join us like that; and actually, I wouldn't even mind doing it again another time," he added in quickly, hoping to sneakily plant the idea in the back of his boss' mind, "But man! Talk about confusing! And all the arguing, and the mess… you know, I think we were _all_ a little out our heads with her spending the day here with us like that; even the brainbots! I've got to admit, there's just something about her…"

As Minion went on, Megamind's deeply drawn scowl began to brighten to a dreamy grin as his bright green eyes looked past him; off into the distance.

"You know, you're right, Minion. There _is_ something about her; she's quite the little temptress to send every last inhabitant of Evil Lair out of their minds the way she did today. She really is _amazing_…"

Suddenly, he began to notice the distinct feeling of being watched; _studied_, like an amoeba under a microscope. Bringing his dreamy eyes back into focus, he was met by the sight of his best friend staring at him, the fish's brown eyes wide in astonishment at what sounded incriminatingly like an admission of much deeper feelings for the pretty reporter than he'd ever let on to before.

Suddenly feeling incredibly exposed and trying to cover his tracks, the villain instantly continued on to say in a flustered tone, "Um, amazing-ly… _infuriating!_ And annoying! And nosy! Much more trouble than she's worth; that's what I was _going_ to say before you distracted me with that weird, suspicious look on your face! So, knock it off! What's _up_ with that, anyway?"

"Oh; sorry, Sir." answered the sheepish fish, instantly wiping away the surprised expression and replacing it with one of humility.

"Yes, well _good_. You should be! Alright, now listen carefully Minion, this is important. I've been thinking; we might just have a good thing going on here. Roxanne admitted that she found our little holiday jaunt surprising; she actually told me I _knocked her socks off!_ You know what that means, don't you? She thought I was _UN-_predictable! We can't let a golden opportunity like this slip away! She's unwittingly given us something to work with here; we can use her confession to our advantage and _really_ blow her mind the next time around! Now, as you know, Christmas is coming up soon, and that would be the perfect chance to…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute." The fish skeptically interjected, his index finger raised thoughtfully. "Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the whole point of being unpredictable is to shake it up, right? To keep her on her toes? Never do the same thing twice?"

Megamind looked at his scaly friend with a patient, compassionate expression. The sweet, sheltered little fish must have absolutely no idea how things worked out there in the _real _world. Reaching out to pat his henchman's mechanical arm compassionately, he offered in a gentle tone, "Oh Minion, you poor, naïve little guppy, that's whole the beauty of this plan! Don't you see? She'd be _expecting_ me to give her the next holiday off after our escapade today; if I swoop in to snatch her again, she'd never see it coming!"

Minion blinked, a slightly puzzled look in his eyes as he silently watched his boss contemplate the idea of an impending Christmas abduction for Miss Ritchi. There were times that Megamind's logic didn't quite seem to square with what the robo-fish considered to be _simple_ things, like rationality and common sense.

But, he _was _a genius after all, and the loyal little sidekick knew that even if his boss' plans didn't make any sense to him at all; even if they seemed completely _crazy_, there must be a nugget of hidden wisdom in them, somewhere down deep. He believed that in the end, despite all the trials and errors his best friend's often nutty ideas brought them through every day, they would eventually lead him to the destiny he'd been promised long ago. What that might be Minion couldn't venture to guess, but knowing Megamind, it would be something truly _amazing, _and the faithful little fish was overjoyed to know that he would be right there to see it happen.

With that in mind, Minion decided once again to trustingly roll along with his boss' super-secret plan despite his lingering confusion. Shrugging his furry shoulders, he responded, "Okay Sir, if you say so. Now then, what were you thinking as far as the mechanics of the plan; do you have anything in mind yet? Oh hey, I have a good idea! How about a really big robot; we haven't used one of those in a good long time! I'll bet _that_ would surprise her! And we could even give it a Christmas theme!"

"Oh Minion, I don't have a _clue_ what we're going to do! I don't even know for sure what we'll be doing on _Monday_ yet; how do you expect me to know what we'll be doing a month from now? Don't get so far ahead of yourself!" he responded with a huff at his sidekick's eagerness. The silly fish seemed to be entirely missing the point.

"But what I _was_ thinking is that I could swoop in to snatch her around… oh, say, one-ish. No, better make it closer to noon, before she has a chance to leave for Goody Two Shoes' place; because we already _know_ she'll be planning to spend the day with _him_." he added, finishing off his comment with a sneer.

"Ah! Good idea, Sir."

"Of course it is! And now Minion, since we're talking about Christmas anyway, I think it's high time we start discussing our Christmas dinner… tell me, what do you have planned for us that day?"

Minion was rather surprised at the sudden interest Megamind seemed to be taking in their upcoming holiday feast. He'd never cared enough to ask about such trivial things before.

"Uh… well, actually Sir, I haven't even thought about it. I mean, we just finished Thanksgiving; isn't it a little early to plan for Christmas yet?"

"Of course not, you silly simian! It's _never_ too early to plan for something that important!"

Minion was becoming confused again. "But wait, I thought you just said not to get too far ahead of myself…"

"I did, and I meant it! But this is _entirely_ different, Minion. We're talking about the holiday feast! _Obviously_ you'll want to plan well in advance for something of this magnitude. Now, I think you should do something very similar to what we had today; turkey, potatoes, the whole shebang! You know, since this time we really didn't have a chance to enjoy it."

"Point taken. Alright then, turkey it is!"

"_Perfect!_" the villain exclaimed gleefully as he tented his long fingers in front of his chin.

After a moment however, Megamind's eager grin began to shift to a more thoughtful expression, and in a tone filled with hope, he added, "Oh, and Minion, be sure to make pumpkin pie again. I think Miss Ritchi really enjoyed that today... don't you?"

Suddenly, everything snapped into place in Minion's mind… now he was beginning to comprehend the method behind this particular bit of his boss' madness. This wasn't really about the impending plan, it was all about_ her_.

As a smile of complete understanding spread across the fish's face, he responded in a knowing tone, "You know, I believe she did, Sir; and I think she'll be pretty happy to see them at Christmas, too. I'll even make extra whipped cream, just for her!"

"Ah, splendid! Minion, you really are a fantastic fish!"

"Yes Sir, I know." answered the happy sidekick with a nod, a pleased grin spreading across his scaly lips. But as he sat back to contentedly bask in his friend's glowing compliment, his eyes happened to drop down once again to the irritating bot that watched him complacently from the comfort of its daddy's lap. The bright mood that he had been in mere seconds before took an instant nose dive at the sight of the smug, red eye peering back at him, and the spacefish couldn't stop himself from adding, his voice thick with annoyance as an image of the dining room plastered with food suddenly flashed through his mind, "But Sir; this time, let's make sure there are _no_ brainbots, _at all_, in the dining room… you know, just to be on the safe side."

* * *

**Thank you again, every last one of you, for following An Unpredictable Thanksgiving. My gratitude goes out to everyone who has been so patient and so kind to come back again and again to see how this adventure turns out, and especially those of you who took the time to review. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you had some fun along the way! :)**

**Not sure what I'll do next now that this one is finally done. I have plenty of reading to catch up on for friends, a few really fun ideas for new stories I might like to explore, an abandoned fic that's been patiently waiting for my attention for MONTHS, and ideas for sequels to one or two of the stories I've already written, so who knows? Guess we'll all have to wait and see... including me. ;)**

**Please be sure to let me know how you liked the **_**REAL**_** conclusion to our favorite trio's crazy holiday jaunt! Hearing a kind word from all my readers now that it's finally finished and knowing you enjoyed it would truly help to make all that **_**long**_** time that went into writing this story worthwhile. Thank you so much!**


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